On Thursday, a group of Michigan Republican lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi asking the Department of Justice to deploy federal election monitors to oversee Michigan’s primary and general elections next year. The reason for the request, as outlined in the letter, centers on a supposed conflict of interest around Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is also running for governor in 2026.
The request, election experts emphasized to TPM, is both extremely atypical and has no real justification.
“I don’t recall a request for monitoring of elections coming months or even close to a year before an election,” David Becker, a former DOJ lawyer and the executive director and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, told TPM. “There’s absolutely no claim I read in this letter that supports any justification for having monitors.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment.
States’ top election officials often run for re-election, or for other statewide offices, without the sort of federal intervention sought by Michigan Republicans. Nonetheless, the Republican lawmakers cast the situation as an unprecedented conflict.
“Our concerns center on Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who, as the state’s chief election official, will oversee the 2026 elections while simultaneously appearing on the ballot as a candidate for governor,” the Republican lawmakers’ letter notes. “This creates an inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest, as Secretary Benson will be administering an election in which she has a direct personal stake in the outcome.”
The lead signature on the letter came from one of Benson’s would-be opponents in the race for governor, state Senate Republican leader Aric Nesbitt.
Benson is far from the only gubernatorial candidate who is also the current Secretary of State. In Kansas, for example, Republican Secretary of state Scott Schwab is also running for governor in next year’s election. And in Georgia, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is also running for governor in 2026.
“This happens all the time in the United States, and, of course if there were some activity that raised questions, that would be separate,” explained Becker, “but just the mere fact that someone happens to be doing their job in in the office they hold while they also are running for, for election doesn’t raise any questions on its own.”
Becker noted that Michigan’s elections are among the most decentralized in the country and that the secretary of state’s office does not actually run elections, contrary to the letter’s claims. Instead, the office merely supports the administration of elections as they are run by local election officials.
In a statement to TPM, Angela Benander, the chief communications officer for Michigan’s Department of State, described these GOP lawmakers as using “dangerous, false rhetoric to encourage President Trump to illegally interfere in our state’s ability to hold fair and free elections.”
“They are aligning with the administration’s ongoing efforts to manufacture crises in order to justify ongoing federal overreach that puts our citizens’ privacy, safety, and freedoms in danger,” she added.
The letter also specifically requests that the DOJ provide election monitors to “provide comprehensive oversight.” There is no provision in federal law for the federal government to take over comprehensive oversight of a state-run election, added Becker.
The request to Bondi comes against the backdrop of the DOJ deploying federal monitors to polling sites in New Jersey and California earlier this month. Experts previously noted to TPM that, similar to this most recent request in Michigan, it remains unclear which federal law the DOJ was allegedly enforcing by deploying federal election monitors to New Jersey and California.
Shorter MI GOP: We Republicans are losers.
P.S. – Maybe the Feds could monitor signature collection?
It’s always projection with the crazies: this illegal act is of course what we would do, so others must be doing it, too.
So in 2019 Josh Hawley was Mo AG, and was running to be US Senator. Now in Mo AG isn’t overseeing running elections, but if there was hanky-panky going on he would have had authority to investigate an election where he was on the ballot seeking another position.
Frankly, it wouldn’t break my heart if states enacted legislation barring people from having any involvement in the administration of elections in which they appear on the ballot, but as with everything else, I don’t believe Democrats should unilaterally disarm.