Michigan GOP demands Jocelyn Benson explain her past SPLC board ties

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s campaign hit back at Republican attacks Friday after the state GOP demanded answers from the Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner about her past work with the federally charged Southern Poverty Law Center.

Benson was a former volunteer and later board member of the SPLC; He was indicted Tuesday on 11 counts that he fraudulently paid members of extremist groups such as the KKK and attendees of 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 reporting on these activities.”

“Jocelyn Benson regularly touted her experience as the leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which the Justice Department says secretly funneled money to the KKK and other hate groups it allegedly tracks,” the Michigan Republican Party wrote on its official X account on Friday.

“What did Jocelyn know and when did she know it?”

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After graduating from college in Massachusetts in 2004, Benson moved to Alabama to work for the SPLC, where she assisted in investigations into hate groups and hate crimes, according to the Harvard Law Review.

Also the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. He also visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where civil rights figures such as John D.C. marched and were badly beaten by law enforcement.

An official from Benson’s campaign confirmed that he served as a volunteer researcher for the SPLC after college and later served on the Montgomery-based group’s board of directors from 2014 to 2018.

But Benson’s campaign pushed back against attacks from the Republican Party when asked what she knew about the allegations in the Justice Department’s indictment.

“Jocelyn Benson has spent her career advancing the unfinished work of the civil rights movement and expanding economic opportunity, including helping to 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 seeks to use the Department of Justice to steer the Department away from reckless economic policies that increase costs for Michiganders, Jocelyn remains focused on lowering costs, raising wages, and protecting the rights and freedoms of people in this state.”

Republicans continued to press Benson for answers.

MIGOP president Jim Runestad told Fox News Digital that Benson’s tenure on the SPLC board coincided with the time period when the Justice Department alleged the group began “paying the KKK and other extremist groups.”

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“Given that the criminal activity began around the same time as Benson’s appointment to the Board, Benson needs to make a public statement about what he knew about the SPLC’s alleged criminal behavior,” Runestad said.

Benson previously explained that his initial work at the SPLC focused on investigating extremist groups.

In an interview with “In 2025”curious about america“Benson,” described research groups claiming reincarnation. [Adolf] Hitler,” he says, saying that he once sat alone on a bench. Hotel room in Spartanburg and he was afraid that these people would “find out who I was and come kill me and no one would know about that and everything else.”

“And it was a small act of courage, and no one saw it, but it helped me build my courage muscle and at many other points throughout my life, so that 20 years later, 25 years later, when I stood up to the president of the United States, it wasn’t the first time I had to engage in these heartbreaking fights,” Benson continued in the interview.

In previous comments, an SPLC official named Penny Weaver described Benson as coming to Montgomery “as an unpaid intern right out of college, then working for us.”

“Benson worked as a waitress to support herself so she could continue volunteering at the center,” Weaver said, adding that Benson begged so she could volunteer for the SPLC.

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SPLC is a long-standing left-wing nonprofit that claims to combat 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 CEO Bryan Fair addressed the investigation in a video message posted online, arguing that the Trump administration “is making no secret of who it wants to protect and who it wants to destroy.”

“We are reviewing the accusations,” a subsequent statement from Fair sent to Fox News Digital added. “However, after the Department of Justice’s press conference today, we are outraged by the false allegations leveled against the SPLC, an organization that has stood for 55 years as a beacon of hope combating white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multiracial democracy where we can all live and thrive. Fighting violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous jobs there is, and we believe it is also one of the most important jobs we do. To be clear, this program has saved lives.”

According to the Department of Justice press release, the full list of these groups includes the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, National Socialist Movement, Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club of the Aryan Nations, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and American Front.

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Blanche and FBI Director Patel also argued Tuesday that the SPLC tried to conceal payments to its donors to groups it said it was trying to fight, leading to many 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.