Michigan governor hopeful pressed on past SPLC work after DOJ indictment: 'What did Jocelyn know?'
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s campaign hit back at Republican attacks Friday after the state GOP demanded answers from the Democratic gubernatorial front-runner on her past work with the federally-indicted Southern Poverty Law Center.
Benson is a former volunteer and later board member of the SPLC, which was indicted Tuesday on 11 counts over accusations it fraudulently paid members of extremist groups like the KKK and those tied to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC paid members of these extremist groups so it could create a "work product that reported on these activities."
"Jocelyn Benson regularly touted her experience as a leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a group that the Department of Justice says secretly funneled money to the KKK and other hate groups they were purportedly tracking," the Michigan Republican Party posted on its official X account on Friday.
"What did Jocelyn know, and when did she know it?"
After her 2004 graduation from college in Massachusetts, Benson moved to Alabama to work for the SPLC where she aided investigations of hate groups and hate crimes, according to the Harvard Law Review.
She also visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma where civil rights figures like the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., marched and were badly beaten by law enforcement.
An official with the Benson campaign confirmed she served as a volunteer researcher for the SPLC after college and later served on the Montgomery-based group’s board from 2014-2018.
But when pressed on what Benson knew about the allegations in the DOJ's indictment, her campaign pushed back on the Republican Party's attacks.
"Jocelyn Benson has spent her career advancing the unfinished work of the civil rights movement and expanding economic opportunity, including helping dismantle white supremacist and neo-Nazi extremist networks responsible for hate crimes across the country," the campaign told Fox News Digital on Friday.
"And while Donald Trump is trying to use his Justice Department to distract from his reckless economic policies that are driving up costs for Michiganders, Jocelyn remains focused on lower costs, raising wages, and protecting the rights and freedoms of the people in this state."
Republicans continued to press Benson for answers.
MIGOP chairman Jim Runestad told Fox News Digital that Benson’s tenure on the SPLC board coincided with the timeframe in which the DOJ alleged the group began "paying the KKK and other extremist groups."
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"Benson owes an explanation to the public in what she knows about the SPLC's alleged criminal behavior, considering the criminal activity started around the same time Benson was named to the Board," Runestad said.
Benson has previously described her early work at the SPLC as focused on investigating extremist groups.
In a 2025 interview with "Keen on America," Benson recounted researching groups "claiming to be the reincarnation of [Adolf] Hitler," saying she once sat alone in a hotel room in Spartanburg and feared those people "were going to find out who I was and come and kill me and no one would ever know about it and all the rest."
"And that was an act of courage, small and no one saw it, but it helped me build a bravery muscle that and several other points throughout my life so that 20 years later, 25 years later, when I’m standing up to the president of the United States, it wasn’t the first time I’ve had to take on those harrowing fights," Benson went on in the interview.
In prior comments, an SPLC official named Penny Weaver described Benson as coming to Montgomery "straight out of college as an unpaid intern, then worked for us."
"Benson worked as a waitress to support herself so she could continue to volunteer at the center," Weaver said, adding that Benson begged to be able to volunteer for the SPLC.
The SPLC is a longstanding left-wing nonprofit that claims to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement about them with the goal of dismantling the groups. SPLC's CEO, Bryan Fair, addressed the probe in a video message posted online, arguing the Trump administration has "made no secret who they want to protect and who they want to destroy."
"We are reviewing the charges," a subsequent statement from Fair sent to Fox News Digital added. "However, after today’s Department of Justice press conference, we are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC – an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multi-racial democracy where we can all live and thrive. Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do. To be clear, this program saved lives."
The complete list of these groups, according to a Justice Department press release, includes the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and the American Front.
Blanche and FBI Director Patel also argued Tuesday that the SPLC tried to hide its payments to groups the SPLC told its donors it was trying to combat, leading to several of the charges in the indictment.
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch and Alec Schemmel and Fox News’ Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report.