A group of Michigan Republican lawmakers sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi on Thursday asking the Justice Department to deploy federal election observers to oversee Michigan’s primary and general elections next year. The reason for this request, as stated in the letter, centers on an alleged conflict of interest surrounding Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, also a candidate for governor in 2026.
This request, electoral experts stressed to the TPM, is both extremely atypical and without any real justification.
“I don’t recall a request for election monitoring in the months or even close to a year before an election,” David Becker, a former Justice Department lawyer and executive director and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, told TPM. “I have read absolutely no statement in this letter that justifies the presence of monitors.”
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Top state election officials often run for office or other statewide offices without the type of federal intervention sought by Michigan Republicans. Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers called the situation 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 election while simultaneously appearing on the ballot as a candidate for governor,” the Republican lawmakers’ letter noted. “This creates an inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest, as Secretary Benson will be administering an election in which she has a direct personal interest in the outcome. »
The letter’s lead signature came from one of Benson’s potential opponents in the gubernatorial race, 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 was an activity that raised questions, that would be different,” Becker explained, “but just because someone is doing their job in the position they hold while also running for office, for an election, does not raise questions in itself.”
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, as the letter claims. Instead, the office simply supports the administration of elections because they are run by local election officials.
In a statement to TPM, Michigan Department of State communications officer Angela Benander described these Republican lawmakers as using “false and dangerous rhetoric to encourage President Trump to illegally interfere with our state’s ability to hold fair and free elections.”
“They align with the administration’s continued efforts to manufacture crises to justify federal government excesses that endanger the privacy, security and liberties of our citizens,” she added.
The letter also specifically requests that the DOJ provide election observers to “ensure comprehensive monitoring.” There is no provision in federal law allowing the federal government to assume complete oversight of state-run elections, Becker added.
The request to Bondi comes against the backdrop of the DOJ’s deployment of federal observers to polling locations in New Jersey and California earlier this month. Experts previously noted to TPM that, like this most recent request in Michigan, it remains unclear which federal law the DOJ allegedly applied in deploying federal election observers in New Jersey and California.
