Jocelyn Michelle Benson, born October 22, 1977, has served as Michigan's 43rd Secretary of State since January 1, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a lawyer and former dean of Wayne State University Law School (2012-2016). She was the first Democrat elected to the Secretary of State office since 1995, winning her 2018 election by 8.9 points over Republican Mary Treder Lang. She was reelected in 2022 with a record-breaking 14-point margin over Republican Kristina Karamo, the largest vote share among all statewide candidates that year. She announced her gubernatorial candidacy in January 2025, on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.
Benson was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Wellesley College with a bachelor's degree in 1999. She earned a graduate degree from Oxford University and a law degree from Harvard Law School. She worked as a summer associate for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and as a legal assistant to Nina Totenberg at NPR. She is married to Army veteran Ryan Friedrichs and they have one son. Benson is an accomplished runner who completed her second Boston Marathon while eight months pregnant in 2016.