August 20, 2026 – Jocelyn Benson’s SOS worked with SPLC on Michigan public school DEI and voter registration efforts, called it ‘food assistance’

In Email/Dossier/Govt Corruption Investigations, Featured Timeline Entries by Katie Weddington

Jocelyn Benson poses with Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Joe Levin (L) and SPLC Director Tafeni English (R) in March 2024 (Credit: The Midwesterner)

Revelations continue to trickle out regarding Secretary of State and 2026 gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson’s long relationship with the disgraced Southern Poverty Law Center that cast doubt on her claim that her SPLC board membership was “mostly ceremonial” and that she ended her relationship with the organization in 2019.

In fact, SPLC tax filings between 2018 and 2024 reveal the group was heavily involved in funding its own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion education programs in Michigan public schools. The SPLC grants to state schools for its Learning for Justice DEI program amounted to approximately $91,000 between 2018 and 2024. Michigan’s nine grant recipients from the SPLC, currently facing federal indictments, included Carmen-Ainsworth in Flint (three separate years), Adrian, Muskegon Heights, César Chávez Academy, U-M’s regents, Plymouth-Canton, and Grand Haven.

Additionally, the Michigan Department of State under Benson’s leadership, named an SPLC high school voting initiative an official partner in the MI Vote Matters High School Voter Registration Challenge, which focused on registering or preregistering eligible voters in 92 schools throughout the state. The SPLC provided a $50,000 grant in the fiscal year ending October 31, 2020 to When We All Vote, an initiative within Civic Nation, an official partner in the SOS effort that state records report resulted in 2,252 student registrations during the 2022 program.

Perhaps most alarming about the grant was the SPLC mislabeling it as “food assistance,” which set off red flags undergirding the current federal investigations of the organization.

As Michigan Secretary of State officially in charge of the state’s election process, Benson is essentially overseeing her own election in November. She resigned from the SPLC board in 2019, the year she assumed office as SOS. She told Detroit PBS in 2015 she was “very proud” of her work on the SPLC board, but has since scrubbed references to the nonprofit from her campaign website.

The Midwesterner previously reported that Benson maintained a working relationship with SPLC after 2019, when she cohosted a National Association of Secretaries of State tour of historical sites and the SPLC offices in Alabama. The trip was funded by the progressive Center for Secure and Modern Elections, the SPLC, the Ford Foundation, and the Democracy Fund only months after Benson told SPLC leadership she was stepping down.

 

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Benson has been persistently hesitant to explain her SPLC ties after her board resignation.

Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox in April submitted a public information request for Benson’s communications with the SPLC, and the Secretary of State responded a $10,309.94 fee and estimated delay of up to 10 weeks to produce the documents.

Cox paid an upfront deposit of more than $5,000, but was forced to file a lawsuit to compel Benson to release the documents 11 weeks later. Cox wants the Michigan Court of Claims to order the Secretary of State to immediately release any records related to the SLPC to inform voters ahead of the 2026 midterm election.

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“There’s only two options: either Jocelyn Benson knew about the SPLC’s funding of hate groups like Nazis and the KKK or she was completely asleep at the wheel of this organization she bragged about overseeing,” Cox said when he filed suit last month. “Neither answer is acceptable for someone running to be Governor of Michigan.” (Read more: The Midwesterner, 8/20/2026)  (Archive)

PICK A CRIME: That’s the choice Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson handed to my client, a township clerk. I laid it out this morning on @wjrradio with @kevincdietz.

Delete them? Face up to 1 year of imprisonment under federal law. Refuse? Up to 90 days imprisonment under Michigan law. Every path carries a penalty aimed at my client personally. For trying to follow the law.

She asked the Secretary of State how to obey both. 37 days. NO ANSWER.

So we filed Wednesday. Thursday the Court ordered the records PRESERVED. The State has to respond by August 20.

Read all 156 pages, complaint and exhibits, yourself: http://tinyurl.com/pollbookcase

Let’s make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again! 🇺🇸

ORDER ENTERED STOPPING DESTRUCTION: Less than 24 hours after we filed, the Michigan Court of Claims just ordered the August 4 election records PRESERVED, despite Michigan Secretary of State’s Jocelyn Benson’s voter record deletion rule.

The Court’s own words: defendants are DIRECTED to preserve “the electronic pollbook software and associated files” in a secure manner pending the resolution of this matter.

Translation: nothing gets deleted while a judge decides which law controls.

The Court also put the whole case on an expedited schedule. The State’s response is due August 20. Because, in the Court’s words, the deletion date “is fast approaching.”

That’s how fast this moved: filed Wednesday afternoon. Preservation order Thursday morning.

The records exist. They stay existing. And a court will answer the question my client asked the State 38 days ago.

Read all 156 pages, complaint and exhibits, yourself: http://tinyurl.com/pollbookcase

The one-page fact sheet: http://tinyurl.com/pollbookcasefactsheet

Let’s make Michigan safe, normal, and responsible again! 🇺🇸