Shortly after the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, the race to replace the unsuccessful Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan has commenced. The current secretary of state declaring her intention to vie for the position did not catch many by surprise in the state’s political circles. The election is scheduled for November 2026.
Jocelyn Benson made the announcement earlier this morning which was covered right HERE…
Speaking to The Detroit News, Benson expressed her aspiration to be recognized as the governor who prioritizes transparency and efficiency. As a 47-year-old resident of Detroit, she is poised to enter a competitive Democratic race for the nomination and subsequently, face a tough battle in the general election of 2026. Gretchen Whitmer, the current Democratic Governor of Michigan, is ineligible to run again due to term limits.
Benson has chosen the 52nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, a day that upheld abortion rights nationally until its reversal on June 24, 2022, to formally launch her campaign for the highest political office in Michigan. She has committed to advocating for abortion rights during her tenure as governor.
In the blue state of Michigan, I’m going to give her the edge currently being she has run back-to-back state races, winning the SOS office pretty handily in 2018 and 2022.
I know I’m going to get pushback and resistance from people who believe that because Donald Trump won here back in November that somehow Michigan is a red state and believe that the tide has changed.
Let me explain to you why that is utter nonsense.
Donald Trump won the state in 2016 by just over 11,000 votes, 47.6 percent to 47.4 percent, and in 2024 by 80 thousand, or 49.7 percent to 48.3, which of course were historic wins. This is not because they were blowout victories by any stretch of the imagination but because Michigan is a very blue state and has been for two decades going on three.
The Michigan GOP and its stalwarts have been screaming from the mountaintops to anyone who will listen that the force known as Donald Trump somehow is single-handedly turned the tide in the state of Michigan to become a red state or at the very best purple.
Yet history shows a different story from a long-term standpoint.
We have NOT elected a conservative as governor here since John Engler in 1998. Rick Snyder winning as a Republican was adorable as a GOPer, but as the kids on social media like to yell, he was RINO, and he actually was.
On the United States Senate side, we had a close race here back in 2024 with Republican Mike Rogers (who was endorsed by President Trump) losing to Elissa Slotkin by 19,006, or 48.6 percent to 48.3 percent, which was really close. Rogers was not Donald Trump though, so he ended up losing.
That happens here a lot to statewide Republicans not named Trump it seems.
That contest above continued a 30-year streak of Republicans not winning a federal senate seat in this state since 1994 with the election of Spencer Abraham, who was eventually defeated in 2000 by the now-retired Debbie Stabenow.
The Michigan Republican Party and its leadership itself have been dismal much of the whole time that this streak has been occurring. That’s not to say that some people in the political and consultant businesses have not made some dough, but those actual results of winning statewide don’t really matter to them.
In fact, last year the party had to jettison its chairperson and replace her with Pete Hoekstra, who Donald Trump just selected as the new ambassador to Canada.
So until the majority of the people running the state party are actually competent conservatives first and knowledgeable at running a statewide party, I don’t see Michigan GOP fighting a good solid battle to win for Republicans statewide.
Yet sitting here today with the glow of the newly inaugurated Trump presidency just hours old, I admit a lot has to happen until the lineup is set for Michigan in November 2026. The state party convention happens next month to select a new chairperson to replace Ambassador Hoekstra and once that happens, they will begin to lay out the groundwork for the election in 2026.
I have high hopes.
However, history has not been kind to Michigan in regard to defeating Democrats, and likely to repeat itself here.
