- Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jocelyn Benson recently embarked on an affordability tour, but repeatedly fielded questions on data centers
- Benson’s husband works for a company bringing a data center to Michigan but recently changed rolls
- Democratic rival Chris Swanson has run a notably positive campaign but has needled Benson on the data center connection
SUTTONS BAY — As she runs for governor, Jocelyn Benson is visiting small farms, jam shops and breweries to tout plans to lower costs for Michiganders.
“Costs down, wages up, rights protected — that’s the message,” she said during a recent Manistee stop on her statewide affordability tour.
But even in those upbeat events, one recurring issue continues to follow Benson’s campaign: Data centers, and her husband’s role at a company working to bring a massive one to Michigan.
“I understand that he will be removing himself from any of the Michigan projects, but I also think that it’s just an inevitable conflict of interest,” 19-year-old Sarah Huber told Bridge after a Benson campaign speech in Manistee, calling data centers one of the most motivating issues for young voters.
Benson has proposed new guardrails to ensure any data center developers coming to Michigan hold public hearings, bear the cost of additional energy usage and prove that the projects won’t harm the environment, among other things. Last week, she said companies who violate those rules would be held accountable if she was elected governor, “up to and including a moratorium.”
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There’s a “moral responsibility” to protect the state’s natural resources and enable the public “to have a real voice in the process of anyone coming to their community,” Benson said in Manistee.
But as she was speaking, another attendee, Chris Reilly, asked a Bridge reporter unprompted, “what’s up with her husband?”
Such questions have dogged Benson because her husband, Ryan Friedrichs, is a vice president at The Related Companies and has worked on bringing a hyperscale project to Saline Township.
When news of his role became public in November 2025, critics sounded alarms, alleging Benson’s family could profit from data centers. As public backlash grew against the planned facilities, Friedrichs announced he would take a new role in the company and no longer work on any Michigan projects.
Still, the familial connection is one of the few areas Democratic primary rival Chris Swanson has challenged Benson over as he runs an otherwise positive campaign. “My family hasn’t made a dime from data centers and never will,” he recently posted on social media.
“We’re the same,” Benson told Bridge, responding to Swanson’s critique. “None of my family is profiting from data centers, either.”
A big issue for voters
Data centers have emerged as a central issue in politics this year as tech companies seek to build facilities to fuel what they see as an impending artificial intelligence revolution.
About 55% of Michiganders oppose having a data center within 25 miles of their home, according to a May poll sponsored by the Detroit Regional Chamber. Even with strong regulations in place, only about 49% of respondents would then be “open to considering” a data center.
Some Republicans have moved hard against data centers, at least in public statements. “No Big Data Benson” is emblazoned on campaign signs for businessman Perry Johnson, who recently joined calls for a one-year data center moratorium.
“What is the biggest edge that we have against Jocelyn Benson? Her husband is making $70 million from these data centers,” Johnson told reporters this week, referencing a disproven claim from a meditation instructor who testified before a legislative committee.
Benson has roundly denied those suggestions, as has The Related Companies, which previously told the Michigan Advance that Friedrichs doesn’t work on commission and wouldn’t personally profit from any Michigan project.
Huber, the 19-year-old who attended Benson’s event in Manistee, told Bridge she “really appreciated” that the Democratic frontrunner has “solidified her stance” on data centers.
But after speaking to Benson about the guardrails she has proposed, Huber still had some reservations.
Governors can only do so much to regulate the projects, Huber said, before noting she plans to vote for the Democratic nominee regardless because “Republican candidates are so overwhelmingly (for) things I don’t stand for.”
‘How can you beat her experience?’
Benson, who has served as Michigan’s secretary of state since 2019, has an easy well of experience to draw on as she campaigns across the state, telling supporters how she reformed “Michigan’s Department of Motor Vehicles” and defended the election system after President Donald Trump’s false claims the 2020 contest was rigged against him.
She appears well-positioned heading toward the general election. Republican rivals have largely been busy attacking each other instead of her. And Swanson, the Genesee County sheriff running against Benson in the Democratic primary, has shied away from personally criticizing her.
Manistee County Democratic Party Chair John Helge compared Swanson to a football coach: “Hearing Chris speak sometimes … makes me want to run through the wall, you know, get out on the field for him.” But Helge emceed Benson’s campaign event and offered a full-throated endorsement of her candidacy. His support, he said, is based on Benson’s acumen. “How can you beat her experience, her capabilities?” he said.
But as the fall approaches, Whitmer looms large in the race. Michigan voters tend to prefer change, generally picking a Republican after eight years of a Democratic governor, a trend Benson is hoping to buck.
Unlike predecessors, Whitmer appears to have remained an enduringly popular political figure in Michigan. Her approval rating has remained above 50% even though a larger majority of Michiganders believe the state is on the wrong track, according to the May poll by Glengariff.
That environment had tasked Benson with the challenge of promising change while also avoiding direct criticism of a Democrat she shared the ticket with — and won with — in 2018 and 2022.
At a cherry farm in Suttons Bay, on the Leelanau Peninsula, Benson met with growers from three separate farms. The Michigan industry has broadly struggled in recent years from low prices and scant harvests, and farmers approached Benson with an additional grievance: The Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has become overly aggressive under Whitmer, they said.
The water they were using to rinse the cherries after harvest, they said, was being treated the same as industrial wastewater by state regulators, increasing the burden on their already strained businesses. (Republican legislators have proposed loosening the regulations.)
“We want to keep farming and we want to be environmentally safe, but we need to find a middle ground,” said Emily Miezio, who manages Cherry Bay Orchards in Suttons Bay.
Albeit in front of two reporters and a campaign photographer, Benson spent more than 20 minutes drilling down into the issue with the farmers, and went over a bevy of options — including moving oversight to the state’s agriculture department.
In speaking with Bridge, Benson was careful not to directly criticize Whitmer or some of her administration’s biggest policy bets, but she made some distinctions clear.
‘Political games’
Whitmer’s economic development strategy has in large part involved pursuing multibillion-dollar megaprojects to mixed success, along with attempts to retain and regrow the automotive industry amid the nation’s troubled transition toward electric vehicles. Benson said she wants to look beyond that.
“I understand the importance of bringing manufacturing into the state, respecting and growing our legacy economies, certainly, but I also want to diversify our economy,” Benson said.
One of the best means of diversification, Benson said, is doing more to support small business growing — intimating that hasn’t happened enough.
“That’s something that I want to spend more focus on as governor than I think past governors might,” she said.
Benson also appeared to level some guarded criticism toward Whitmer late last week, after the governor vetoed nine bills that Democratic legislators spent nearly two years fighting in court to get to her desk.
Benson decried “political games” and said she would sign the same bills into law as governor.
Everyday workers “spent years fighting for relief, only to have leaders they trusted pull the rug out from underneath them,” Benson said, echoing the frustrations of Democrats who worked to pass the legislation.
This article first appeared on Bridge Michigan and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
