Michigan Secretary of State and gubernatorial hopeful Jocelyn Benson hit the campaign trail in Saginaw on Wednesday to talk with voters about affordability, economic investment in the city and government transparency.
Attendees told Benson that one of their biggest concerns going into the midterm elections is affordability. According to data from the 2020 census, the city of Saginaw's poverty rate sits at about 34%.
Julian Mcclellon and Desmond Fowlkes are from Saginaw. The pair told WCMU they think Michigan's next governor should prioritize bringing businesses, jobs and industrial infrastructure back to the city.
"I have seen that over the years it has been pulled away from us and that has hit us pretty hard," Mcclellon said.
"I want more people to have a steady job to be able to feed their families," Fowlkes said. "And I just want less people out on the streets."
If she's elected, Benson said she will focus on making small businesses easier to start and less costly to maintain in smaller cities, like Saginaw or Muskegon.
"We're giving millions of dollars to out-of-state companies to come here and create a few jobs," Benson said. "What if we invested that same million in the people of Saginaw to create your own businesses and generate wealth here from the ground up?"
Benson said she thinks Saginaw has lots of untapped economic potential. The surrounding area is home to a university, two airports, significant interstate infrastructure and many natural resources.
"Saginaw should be leading our economy, and you've got so many resources to already do that," Benson said. "We need a state leader who will recognize that the center of our economic growth needs to be in cities like this one."
The Democrat was joined by State Rep. Amos O'Neal (D-Saginaw), who echoed the concerns of the attendees while also emphasizing how investing in education is also important to the city.
"It's refreshing to have a potential governor to consider Saginaw as one of the hot spots for investments," O'Neal said.
Benson also promised voters that if she's elected, her office will voluntarily comply with the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, on day one. She said doing so will help reestablish trust between Michiganders and officials in Lansing.
Michigan is one of only two states in the country that bar people from using the law to access records from the executive and legislative branches of state government.
She said doing so is a "no-brainer," and touted her prior experience with the transparency laws in her role as secretary of state.
"We not only have responded to all the legal requests we've received, we've also created a portal on our website where anyone can view all the FOIA requests we receive and our responses to them," Benson told reporters. "I want to take that same type of infrastructure to the governor's office... I don't need a law to require me to do what's right," she said.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer campaigned on a similar promise when she first ran in 2018, but has not followed through while in office.
Legislative efforts to extend state FOIA compliance have passed in the state Senate, but has stalled in the House of Representatives.
Benson will face off against Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson in the Aug. 4 primary.
