Benson: “I want to make sure Michigan is leading in every metric possible, so that it truly is the best place in the nation to call home

and to be a kid and to raise a kid and to retire”

During an interview on WDET, Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson laid out her vision for a more affordable state and shared stories from Michiganders struggling under skyrocketing costs.

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Pat Batcheller: [...] Benson tells WDET's Quinn Klinefelter her bid for governor stems from a very personal place.

Jocelyn Benson: You know, I'm a mom of a nine-year-old little boy, and in 10 years, he's going to be deciding what he's going to do with his life. And I want Michigan to be the place – that is the best place in the country – for him and anyone else to choose to call home, to build his career, to build his family. And so this is personal for me. I want to make sure Michigan is leading in every metric possible, so that it truly is the best place in the nation to call home and to be a kid and to raise a kid and to retire, but in a lot of ways, we're not that right now. I think there's a lot of reasons why, but it's clear to me that the next governor of this state needs to be prepared on day one to streamline how government works, to drive down costs on everything from health care to housing to our energy costs, increase and build our economy so that we're diversifying and creating more well-paying jobs, and be prepared to work with the federal government when required to accomplish those goals, but also be ready to stand up to even the President of the United States if he would try to interfere with our rights, our freedoms, our security, our safety, privacy, our democracy. I've done all those things as Secretary of State, and I'm ready to do it as the next governor.

Quinn Klinefelter: Well, you mentioned a few there, but in terms of the issues facing people in Michigan, what do you see as the most vital right now?

Benson: Without a doubt, the fact that the costs of everything are going up while our wages are stagnant. It's heartbreaking. I'm hearing stories all across the state–a mom in Muskegon who is struggling to cover health care costs for her family and choosing to go without health care for herself so that she could cover it for her kids. I mean, impossible choices–of seniors in Flint, who told me they have to literally decide in a given month whether to eat or pay for their medicine. One small business owner in Saginaw told me he wasn't sure he'd be able to keep his doors open because of these chaotic tariffs that are causing him to potentially lose his inventory, while also rising energy costs make it from month to month impossible to sometimes just pay to keep the lights on. But we also need to grow our economy. 60% of jobs in the state pay $60,000 or less. That's impossible to sustain in an economy like this one. So we have to invest in the growth of new, well-paying jobs, diversify our economy, invest in clean energy, clean tech.

I'm the CEO of one of our state's largest agencies, and I've been able to transform it to ensure we're cutting wasteful spending while also reinvesting in our employees, in our operations, so that we've eliminated wait times. We've made it easy and affordable to renew your license, renew your plates, and now, if all of state government worked well like that, it would actually be a lot easier and more cost effective to build homes, making homes more affordable. We can reform our Department of Health and Human Services to streamline how people get access to the benefits they're already entitled to in a way that reduces cost and enables us to reduce premiums as well. We can ensure we're reforming our economic development corporation and our agencies that focus on economic growth as well as small business growth. I'd like to make Michigan the small business capital of the nation. A lot of that requires it to be as easy as possible to start and grow your business, while also sitting down with regional economic hubs, so that when we see other local governments reducing costs in an effective way, we’re amplifying that work and expanding it statewide. And a lot of that is tied up in public education as well. And I say this also as a mom, I want to make sure we are partnering with our local governments to invest and turn around the defunding of schools that has really made it difficult for many teachers, educators and others to meet our needs, and taking our schools from being at the bottom of far too many rankings to being at the top.

Klinefelter: [...] If you were elected, how do you see balancing working with the Trump administration and the President in particular?

Benson: You know, I'll always work with anyone if it helps us drive down costs for Michiganders, take on polluters or other bad actors that are driving up costs, or I'll work with anyone who will help us create well-paying jobs in our state. I've been proud to do that as Secretary of State, particularly when it comes to working with a Republican legislature to get things done. But I've also been very clear about standing up to anyone, whether they be wealthy or powerful, or the most powerful person in the United States, if they would try to interfere with the safety, the rights, the freedoms, the votes of our citizens. At the end of the day, my job is to stand up for the Michiganders who I will be elected to represent, and that does mean being willing and ready to effectively stand up to anyone who would enact tariffs that would drive up costs or potentially interfere with our elections.

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