Jocelyn Benson clearly remembers waking up one morning in 2020 to see that Donald Trump had posted a tweet attacking her. The Michigan Secretary of State — who in the tweet, Trump called “rogue” — was naturally taken aback that the president of the United States was targeting her on social media. In his tweet, Trump accused Benson of sending absentee ballots to voters who didn’t ask for them, and went on to threaten withdrawing federal funding from Michigan if it proved to be true. But Benson knew the truth of the situation: Michigan was not sending out absentee ballots, but rather absentee ballot applications and informational letters about how to vote during the height of a pandemic. Luckily, the president condemning her online for all to see — although undoubtedly a unique situation — didn’t shake Benson, who built her career by standing strong in her beliefs and never faltering, even in moments of fear or uncertainty.
“Every time I was able to make a choice from a place of courage, I strengthened that muscle inside me to the point where when the president of the United States starts attacking me on social media, I had already built up this sort of bravery instinct to be unafraid — or to at least allow fear in, but to not allow it to deter me from fighting for my purpose,” Benson tells Her Campus in an exclusive interview.
Benson’s career spanned multiple states and countries before she landed in Michigan — from attending Wellesley College in Massachusetts, to working in Alabama investigating hate crimes, to moving to the U.K. as a Marshal Scholar for her masters at Oxford University, and eventually to receiving her law degree from Harvard. From there, she moved to Detroit to serve as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and went on to become the youngest woman in American history to lead a top 100 law school as Dean of Wayne State University Law School. While writing a book about the secretaries of state in the U.S., Benson realized she wanted to run for office instead — and in 2018, she was elected Michigan Secretary of State alongside Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel. In January of this year, Benson announced her candidacy for the 2026 gubernatorial election to replace Whitmer once her second term is complete.
In addition to her run for governor, Benson just released her autobiography The Purposeful Warrior: Standing Up for What’s Right When the Stakes Are High, in which she shares stories from her rise in politics. She hopes it will inspire current and future leaders to lead with values and integrity. “Our voices are powerful, whether we exercise them at the ballot box or as candidates or as advocates for what we believe in,” Benson says. “And those voices need to be heard now more than ever because there are a lot of very powerful forces who want to drown them out and make us feel like those voices don’t count, but they only win if we believe them.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Let’s rewind back to your time at Wellesley College — how did those years shape what would become of your career in law and politics?
Going to school at Wellesley at a formative time in the late ‘90s was really foundational to who I am. I came to Wellesley as the daughter of two public school special education teachers who really taught me the importance of ensuring that every voice is heard and that we invest in our teachers and schools. Wellesley reinforced that with its education and, in particular, their focus on women finding their voice in their careers. I remember one time in class where I looked around and realized, ‘Oh, we’re all women here.’ I totally forgot that gender was an issue at all because at no point did I feel that I could ever be held back by gender. And so it was a really empowering experience to be in an environment that is invested in ensuring women’s voices are heard and that women feel they can lead in every field.
Did you deal with culture shock when going from Wellesley in Massachusetts, to your first job in Alabama, and then to the U.K. to attend Oxford University?
Yes. In Alabama I was surrounded by this incredible workplace with the Equal Justice Initiative and the Southern Poverty Law Center and many advocates and activists who were active in the Civil Rights Movement in the ‘60s and the ‘50s in Montgomery. So there was an enormous focus on empowerment and voices and values that I felt I really shared. It was actually going to Oxford after that, where only 30% of the students were women, that I most felt the jarring difference of how women were less likely to be called on consistently in class. And that sort of sent a message that our voices were perhaps less relevant or that we’d have to work even harder to have our voices heard. All the voices that weren’t heard in those Oxford classrooms — because women felt that their voices were less than their male counterparts — meant we all missed out on hearing the full collection of voices we could hear in that setting. Both those experiences really shaped my commitment to making sure that every voice is heard and every one feels their voice matters and is empowered.
You’ve spoken about experiencing sexual harassment from a university budget director while you were leading Wayne State’s law school. How did you deal with that?
I began very much in an academic headspace as Dean that, ‘Okay, these are the goals we need to reach, these are the steps we need to take to get there, and this is how we build a law school that enables us to execute those steps.’ So I was jarred when I realized and was reminded that I would have to go an extra mile, do a lot more extra work, and be subject to various different challenges as a young woman trying to lead this institution in this environment where I would have to consistently prove that I belonged in the position that I had. I was fortunate enough in that I had just come off of a campaign, my first run for office, where I had also experienced how important it is to stick to your guns and believe in yourself and speak your voice — all which were really rooted in that time at Wellesley and my parents instilling in me that we always have the power to define us and what we can contribute. That enabled me to say, ‘No, no, no, you don’t get to define who I am or what I can achieve. I’m going to define that.’ And through that, I was able to really lead that institution in the right direction, despite all of the wind in my face.
How did your book’s title, Purposeful Warrior come to you, and has the meaning of it changed throughout your life and career?
I wanted to write a book about being a warrior, about how all of us citizens in this moment or in any turbulent moment in our country or in our world, we all have the power to define ourselves. And when we define ourselves as warriors fighting for what we believe in an authentic and truthful way, we inherently make our own lives and the lives around us more powerful and strong and prosperous. Warrior was always a central theme as I wrote the book, especially as it hooked around standing up to different factors; whether it be a powerful president or colleagues who didn’t believe in me, it was always about staying true to your warrior spirit.
I was playing around with being a “happy warrior” or a “powerful warrior,” and I realized for me what being a warrior actually is fighting for a purpose, fighting with focus, not just fighting. And so purpose preceding warrior became a way to kind of talk about what the book’s really about, which isn’t just about how to be a fighter for what you believe in, but how to really hone that fight in a focus and impactful way so that all the energy that you put into that fight actually makes a difference.
How did your clashes with Trump shape the rest of your career and how you approach politics?
When I started my career after Wellesley, going to Alabama and finding myself in places where I was very afraid — standing up to people who were planning to commit hate crimes and trying to expose their efforts before tragedy struck. I had a very pivotal moment where I was really scared that folks would find out who I really was and could hurt me or worse. I could run backwards or forwards, and I chose in that moment to run forward to say, “This is my purpose. I’m here to expose what they’re doing and write about it and talk about it to prevent harm to others.” By activating that bravery muscle and choosing courage over fear in that moment, I was able to create a pattern throughout my life. That was really what enabled me to get to the point where I wake up and see the president of the United States on social media attacking me and say, “OK, this is odd, this is scary.” But the truth was clear, our elections were secure. We were educating voters about how to participate in the midst of a pandemic, which we were completely legally entitled to do. And so grounding myself in that truth, not allowing anyone else to define that truth, and then fighting and moving forward anyway, the ability to do all of that was born out of strength that I had built in the decades earlier, choosing in times great and small to lean into courage as opposed to allowing fear to drive my actions.
How did you and Governor Whitmer, who was also facing threats from Trump and his supporters, lean on each other at that time?
There were lots of late night conversations between the governor, the attorney general, and myself, through which we built a real sisterhood. Every one of us were fighting different battles in relation to our specific roles, but we locked arms and had each other’s backs, even in times where we didn’t agree with each other, because we knew the wind that we were all facing was really attacking all of us. That same week in which President Trump attacked me, he attacked the governor and the attorney general. Having that common experience that was rooted in part due to our gender being women enabled us to find an inherent bond with each other. To this day if I just need advice or need a gut check, I get to call Governor Whitmer, one of the most politically savvy, smartest leaders in America, and say, “How would you handle this?” And same with our attorney general. That bond has been one of the best things about my job now and something that I’ll carry with me. I think all of us as women, as leaders, we can build that sisterhood wherever we are and really invest in each other and invest in women and the commonalities of the fights that we’re in.
How has the governor’s leadership and support inspired you, especially now that you’re running to succeed her?
We’ve been friends for a long time. One of the things I immediately felt as I entered into this arena and announced my run for governor was seeing all the challenges that she endured when she started in her campaign. Women in any field, we have to work 10 times as hard, raise 10 times as much money, have 400 times as many conversations, walk into every room, convincing people that I clearly have what it takes to govern this state. I still walk into far too many rooms of people who, in part because of my age or my youth or my gender, are suspicious as to whether or not I can really do the job. Seeing how she overcame that with gut and wisdom and strength and real fortitude of purpose has really given me that same strength to do the same. I tell stories in the book about how sometimes the judgments were implicit, sometimes they were explicit — like, “Can a woman really run for governor? Can she really run the state?” In reality, almost all of the Democrats who have won and succeeded statewide for the last 25 years have been women. One of the first things I did after the 2024 election was call Governor Whitmer and say, “The story of the women of Michigan is not over.” The path forward is filled with many things, but among them is this recognition that we want to help lift up other women’s voices in every realm so that we can see all of those voices heard, respected, empowered, because our entire state and country will be better off for it.
What would you say to young people who are feeling more anxious than excited right now about the future of our country?
That we all have the power within us and the light within us to guide us out of this moment. Those who want to divide and create chaos and confusion, their strategy is to make us feel alone, to make us feel like we don’t have each other, to not see each other, to not build that community. And in this moment, it’s all the more important that we not allow anyone else to define our power and still hone the fact that our voices matter. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent, as Eleanor Roosevelt said. That’s what we have to remember right now, and use this as an opportunity to strengthen our voices in strategic and smart ways to advocate for truth, for justice, for our values, for what we believe in. Every time throughout history where folks have come together and done that, they have won. And that’s what we have to remember in this moment as well. The power of the people will always be stronger than the people in power.