Benson amplifies affordability message after El-Sayed primary win

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson leaned into Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed’s message of affordability during her first campaign stop of the general election.

Benson, who has made affordability a key plank since the start of her campaign, told reporters Wednesday morning that her focus as the party’s nominee for governor is delivering a victory not just for herself, but for the entire ticket of Democrats, who she said largely agree on key issues.

“We’re all committed to driving down costs, to ensure healthcare is accessible to all, to ending corruption, to growing our economy and increasing our wages,” Benson said. “You’ll see us as Democrats all working together with that same message, and a motivation to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk and deliver results.”

Benson referenced El-Sayed’s catchphrase of “money out of politics, money in your politics, Medicare for All,” but only directly quoted the first two, instead referring generally to making healthcare more accessible and affordable for the final calling card.

Benson said affordability doesn’t end at driving down costs of things like healthcare and housing. She said it also needs to include increasing wages, which she said have stagnated in Michigan.

“In this economy, with costs skyrocketing, we cannot make it work on one job, which you need to be able to do,” Benson said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, joined Benson at a Detroit bakery Wednesday morning for a roundtable with small business owners.

Supporting small businesses is one way to grow the middle class and begin building generational wealth, Benson said.

She said states like Michigan need to address wealth inequality.

“There should be no ceiling the wealthy can create,” Benson said. “And I particularly want to invest in generational wealth opportunities, of which small business growth is a critical piece, so that we can ensure we’re investing in our families, investing in growth, and not just saying we want to get to this ceiling, but actually creating that floor so that people can just grow and thrive.”

Benson vowed to streamline regulations for small businesses, saying it should be “as easy to start a small business as it is to get your driver’s license.”

Beshear said tariffs and other federal policies have placed additional strain on families’ budgets. But he said the benefit of being a governor is that you don’t have to rely on federal policy to get things done.

“Being governor means no matter what’s going on at the federal level, that you can fight your hardest for the people of your state,” Beshear said.

As wages have gone up in Kentucky, Beshear said, the rate of drug overdose deaths and recidivism have decreased.

He shared an anecdote about a police officer whose child went from going to therapy twice a week to five days a week.

“They went from nonverbal to saying, ‘I love you, Dad,’ before I went to work today,” Beshear said the officer told him. “It was beautiful.”

Benson said it underscores how building wealth relates to other issues.

“We have a moral responsibility to show up for those kids, for those families, to make things work, to make these investments,” Benson said. “It’s our moral duty as leaders, as Michiganders, as Americans to take care of each other.”