1. Jocelyn Benson was born on October 22,1977 and is an American politician and attorney who has served as the 43rd secretary of state of Michigan since 2019.
33 Facts About Jocelyn Benson
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In 2018, Benson was elected as the Secretary of State in Michigan, securing the position with an 8.9 percentage point margin over Republican Mary Treder Lang.
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Jocelyn Benson was reelected in 2022, defeating Republican Kristina Karamo by a margin of 14 percentage points, setting a record for the largest margin and vote share among statewide candidates that year.
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Jocelyn Benson is a candidate for governor of Michigan in the 2026 election, having announced her campaign in January 2025.
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Jocelyn Benson subsequently earned her master's in sociology as a Marshall Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford.
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Jocelyn Benson worked as a legal assistant to Nina Totenberg at National Public Radio.
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Jocelyn Benson received her JD from Harvard Law School, where she was a general editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
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Jocelyn Benson became a member of the Wayne State University Law School faculty in 2005.
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In 2010, Jocelyn Benson published a book, State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process.
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In 2012, at the age of 36, Jocelyn Benson was appointed dean of Wayne Law, becoming the youngest woman ever to lead an accredited law school.
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In 2016, Benson stepped down as dean of Wayne Law in order to become CEO of the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality, a New York-based group funded by Stephen M Ross.
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In 2010, while a faculty member at Wayne Law, Jocelyn Benson mounted her first campaign for Michigan Secretary of State.
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Jocelyn Benson lost to Republican candidate Ruth Johnson by a margin of 51 percent to 45 percent.
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On October 27,2017, Jocelyn Benson announced her second candidacy for Michigan Secretary of State.
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Jocelyn Benson was elected on November 6,2018, defeating Republican Mary Treder Lang, becoming the first Democrat to serve since Richard Austin left office in 1995.
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In October 2019, Jocelyn Benson was named in a lawsuit filed by Priorities USA Action, a Democratic group, over the elimination of absentee votes due to disparities between a voter's signature and other filed documents with election officials.
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In March 2021, Michigan's Court of Claims ruled against Jocelyn Benson, saying that although the instructions' content did not breach election law, she had not followed the appropriate procedural measures while providing guidance to clerks on verifying signatures on absentee ballots.
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In 2020, Jocelyn Benson's office mailed absentee voter applications to all 7.7 million Michigan registered voters for the August primary and November general election.
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Jocelyn Benson's effort was funded by $4.5 million in federal coronavirus relief funding from the CARES Act.
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Jocelyn Benson called Benson a "rogue Secretary of State" and initially threatened to withhold federal funds for coronavirus relief, but later retracted his threat.
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On December 7,2020, reportedly armed pro-Trump demonstrators gathered outside Jocelyn Benson's home, echoing Trump's election fraud claims.
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In December 2022, Jocelyn Benson said that threats from election deniers that started in 2020 had not ceased.
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In June 2020, Jocelyn Benson initiated a platform enabling registered voters to apply for an absentee ballot online, using their state ID and last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
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Jocelyn Benson played a role in developing an online ballot-tracking tool for absentee ballots.
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Jocelyn Benson said that the attempts to delegitimize the 2020 election ultimately resulted in the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
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In March 2021, Jocelyn Benson introduced a legislative agenda called "From Worst to First" which included proposed measures such as expanding the Freedom of Information Act to cover the governor and legislature, requiring personal financial disclosures from elected officials, demanding more frequent campaign disclosures, and tightening campaign finance regulations.
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In 2022, Benson was named as one of five recipients of the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.
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On January 6,2023, Jocelyn Benson was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Joe Biden.
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In November 2023, Trump's legal team sued to prevent Jocelyn Benson from excluding him in Michigan's 2024 elections.
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The lawsuit argues Jocelyn Benson lacks authority to disqualify him under the 14th Amendment, seeking an injunction against barring him from the ballot.
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Jocelyn Benson was viewed as a potential contender for the 2024 US Senate race in Michigan to succeed retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow.
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In March 2023, Jocelyn Benson announced that she would not enter the race.
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In 2016, Jocelyn Benson became one of a handful of women in history to complete the Boston Marathon while more than eight months pregnant.