The Michigan Election You’re Not Hearing About

You can be forgiven for thinking the only big election in Michigan this year is the open seat in the U.S. Senate.

That race has sucked up most of the oxygen both in traditional media and on social media, where Bernie Sanders-backed progressive Abdul El-Sayed is a bonafide star. In the bruising August primary, the charismatic former health official squeaked out a narrow win over U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. Now El-Sayed is facing Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who lost to now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin by roughly 20,000 votes for another open Senate seat. That was in 2024, when Donald Trump won Michigan for the second time.

This is shaping up to be a much better year for Democrats than 2024. The party is on the verge of flipping the U.S. House and is now favored by some handicappers, like Nate Silver, to win control of the U.S. Senate. (That was considered crazy talk a year ago, given how the ‘26 map favors Republicans).

But there have been some hiccups. The Cook Political Report rates Michigan as the only tossup U.S. Senate race currently held by Democrats (the six others — Alaska, Iowa, Texas, Maine, Ohio, and Kansas — are all in GOP hands). El-Sayed is beating Rogers in most polls, including a recent Fox News survey, although it’s within the margin of error. But it’s significant that El-Sayed is putting up worse numbers than Democrats in red states like James Talarico in Texas and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, forcing the party to spend more to shore up Michigan.

The unexpected drama in the Mitten State has been irresistible for the mainstream media, while progressive outlets have continued to rally for El-Sayed as proof that DSA-style candidates can compete in swing states.

But there’s a Michigan election that deserves more attention. And I want to talk about why that race for governor isn’t even looking close right now.

Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is up against U.S. Rep. John James, a close Trump ally and veteran from Southeast Michigan. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is term-limited and can’t run again.

During the same August primary where El-Sayed won by roughly 1 point, Benson had a race of her own. She walloped Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson 83 to 17 percent.

In general election polling averages, Benson is beating James by more than 7 points and she’s posted double-digit leads in recent surveys from Cygnal and Suffolk University. Benson’s numbers line up with Whitmer’s wins by almost 10 points in 2018 and nearly 11 points in 2022.

That’s a far different picture than what’s developing in the U.S. Senate race and is much more in line with how Democrats are performing nationally this cycle.

But those of us who have covered elections for decades know that Benson is bucking a big trend. In recent history, Michigan voters have given a governor two terms and then promptly elected their successor from the opposite party. The pattern has held up with Democrats Jim Blanchard and Jennifer Granholm, as well as Republican Rick Snyder. (Republican John Engler was the rare exception who won three terms, but Michigan’s term limits law guarantees that can’t happen now).

So after eight years of Whitmer, Republicans should have the edge in the Great Lakes State. But Michigan voters aren’t sick of Democrats leading the state. They look ready to give the party a third straight term in the governor’s mansion.

And thanks to Benson’s strength at the top of the ticket, the odds of Democrats winning a governing trifecta are growing.

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The Class of 2018

So let’s look at why Benson (who’s an avid marithoner, by the way) looks primed to win in November without breaking much of a sweat.

Her campaign is laser-focused on the themes of fighting corruption and lowering costs. Many of her campaign spots make voters the main character, not her. El-Sayed and other DSA candidates have snared national media attention for running against Israel’s war in Gaza and for Medicare for All, which has resonated with younger and progressive voters. But in the general election, Benson’s blueprint appears to be playing better.

She’s also done this before — and won. Notably, Benson was the top vote-getter statewide in 2022, winning reelection by nearly 14 points. But let’s go back to her first victory in 2018 during the pink wave, where progressive women won all over the country. That was two years after Trump shocked the country, defeating Hillary Clinton by flipping the Blue Wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

The conventional wisdom was that women couldn’t win at the top of the ticket, as I’ve written about many times. The country clearly wasn’t ready for that. So when Whitmer, Benson, and now-Attorney General Dana Nessel emerged as the 2018 ticket in Michigan, there was no shortage of skepticism in both state and national media.

Yet on Election Night, all three women emerged victorious. Democrats also won control back of the U.S. House, as well as key gubernatorial races in states like Wisconsin, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

Those statewide wins turned out to matter far more than most of us realized at the time. When Trump lost in 2020 and tried to overturn the results, he ran into Democratic governors, AGs, and secretaries of states in swing states. It was officials like Whitmer and Benson who held the line for democracy.

Before she was elected, Benson literally wrote the book on secretaries of state. Then she had to live it, as Trump singled her out on social media during the 2020 election, bashing her as a “rogue Secretary of State.”

After he lost that race, the attacks didn’t stop. In December 2020, armed protesters showed up outside Benson’s Detroit home while she and her young son were decorating it for Christmas, demanding that she overturn a free and fair election.

Jocelyn Benson didn’t budge. Few people on the ballot anywhere this year have a longer record of defending democracy and standing up to Trump.

Why You’re Not Hearing About this Race

To some extent, Benson is a victim of her own success. She’s a polished candidate who hasn’t faced a tight election in three cycles. And campaign coverage is fueled by October surprises, shock polls, and candidate gaffes.

None of those elements seem to be kicking around Michigan’s gubernatorial race. Benson is running a steady marathon pace and hasn’t made unforced errors. And James — who sports an impressive resume, despite being a two-time loser in U.S. Senate contests — isn’t exactly setting the political world on fire.

There’s far more excitement in the Michigan Senate race, from coin-flip polls to fiery debates to El-Sayed challenging Rogers to a tackle football game. That’s catnip for political reporters.

And federal races always dominate political media anyway. Most of the political press is still based in Washington, after all. Statewide races garner much less coverage, even though they’re critical for setting policy, whether it’s abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, the minimum wage, tax policy, or cooperating with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement.

But we can’t forget the lessons of Trump’s meddling in the 2020 election. Heading into 2028, it matters if Democrats hold the governor’s office in Michigan, as well as other statewide posts. The party also looks on the cusp of winning another governing trifecta (they already control the Supreme Court and Senate and just need to flip the state House).

If Democrats end up dominating in Michigan this year, Benson’s performance at the top of the ticket will be a big reason why. (And if El-Sayed ends up underperforming her and other Dems, that should prompt some reflection, as well).

But I think the bigger reason you’re not hearing about her is low-grade sexism (or maybe not so low-grade).

The women of the class of 2018 got a lot done. Voting in Michigan is far easier than it was before Benson took office. Now voters did their part with constitutional amendments: Proposal 3 in 2018 enacted no-reason absentee voting and same-day registration, another 2018 proposal created the independent redistricting commission, and 2022’s Proposal 2 brought early in-person voting.

Amendments don’t carry themselves out, though. Somebody has to implement them. And in plenty of states, Republicans have made it harder to vote and purged voters from the rolls. Benson also pushed for the additional voting laws Democrats passed after 2022, put them in place, and fought off Republican legislators who tried to stop her administrative changes and even filed articles of impeachment against her.

She also runs the state office most Michiganders actually deal with, whether they’re renewing a driver’s license, getting new vehicle tabs, or changing their address to vote. It makes a big difference to have someone in charge who cares about customer service, consumer protections, and the right to vote.

So when people talk about progressives in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed is probably the name that comes to mind. In reality, progressives have been running this state for eight years, and they built the foundation that new progressive candidates are standing on this year.

The Running Mate Nobody Told Her to Pick

Benson also ignored the conventional wisdom this year. She chose Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) as her running mate, which makes theirs Michigan’s first all-female ticket. If she wins, Benson will be the state’s third woman governor.

That move was blasted by conservative commentator James David Dickson, who cattily declared that “any Democrat man in Michigan is at least as feminine as Winnie Brinks, so might as well pick an actual woman.”

James David Dickson @downi75 Jocelyn Benson is the only person in Michigan who doesn’t know that Michigan has girlboss fatigue. In her defense, any Democrat man in Michigan is at least as feminine as Winnie Brinks, so might as well pick an actual woman. 2:25 PM · Aug 19, 2026 · 1.77K Views 14 Replies · 15 Reposts · 71 Likes

That’s clownish commentary, but you can’t deny that the midterms have been dominated by men. Democrats keep agonizing over where their Joe Rogan is and how to win back men, especially young men, after Trump dominated that group in 2024. The candidates getting national buzz are men like El-Sayed, James Talarico in Texas, Jon Ossoff in Georgia and Troy Jackson in Maine, who replaced Graham Platner (the DSA’s former it-boy) as the Democratic Senate nominee there.

Benson tuned all of that out and picked the most qualified person she could find. Brinks was first elected to the Legislature in 2012, became the state’s first female Senate majority leader, and helped pass some of the most significant laws of the last decade: LGBTQ civil rights protections, overturning Right to Work, and a fairer tax system for lower-income residents, including repeal of the retirement tax.

Pundits said you can’t put two women at the top of the ticket because it’s never been done. Benson did it anyway. That tells you she’ll do what she thinks is right, and she wants another progressive who knows how to get things done working beside her.

After 2018, the media belatedly admitted that Whitmer had been one of the cycle’s big winners. Her victory reshaped state policy, and she was a key surrogate for Joe Biden when Michigan flipped back to Democrats in 2020. I’m not sure Benson will get that credit this time as long as El-Sayed wins, even if she runs 7 to 10 points ahead of him.

But anyone who understands Michigan politics (and how things actually get done here) knows this will be one of the most consequential elections on Nov. 3.