Ones to Watch ... What We Know about the Candidates for MI Secretary of State
- Aug 4
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 4
By Seth Keshel, Guest Columnist
August 4, 2025
Michigan Democrats Aghogho Edevbie and Barb Byrum have entered the race for their party’s nomination for secretary of state. They are vying to replace Jocelyn Benson, the outgoing secretary of state who has announced her own run for governor.
Election integrity activists and Benson have a storied history, which has led to many successful lawsuits against the secretary of state’s office, as well as attempts by government officials to intimidate and silence those bringing forward legitimate grievances and requests for transparency and accountability.
Both Edevbie and Byrum are largely unknown to a national audience but stand to have a critical impact on Michigan’s tenuous election scene should they prevail in November 2026 against their Republican opponent. It is essential that voters develop a clear picture of all candidates in the secretary of state race as early as possible to pressure all campaigns to address the collapse of public trust in election administration.
Edevbie joined forces with Benson in 2023 as her deputy secretary of state. It is likely Benson will seek to protect her tenure as secretary of state with a future endorsement of Edevbie. When he came on board, he was lauded for playing “a crucial role for more than a decade in protecting voters through his advocacy for ballot drop boxes, early voting, and protections for election workers.”
Edevbie was previously Michigan state director for the activist group All Voting is Local, which claims to be nonpartisan but promotes issues known to corrupt the electoral process, beginning with the belief that increasing turnout of groups supposedly suffering under voter suppression starts with the integration of automatic voter registration, which is one of the key reasons Michigan has hundreds of thousands more registrants on the state rolls than are even eligible to vote.
Byrum, endorsed by three former chairs of her state’s party, is a former Michigan state representative and was elected to her current position of Ingham County clerk in 2016. While Edevbie’s position on ranked choice voting is not publicly known, a positive aspect of Byrum’s candidacy is that she has opposed ranked choice voting.
From Michigan Advance:
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum said she has “a litany of concerns” about the possibility of certain localities, such as East Lansing, potentially moving to a ranked choice voting system, including that “certainly, it is not permitted under law right now in the state of Michigan.”
Byrum said she worries about delays in posting results creating opportunities for disinformation, voter confusion – especially in a college town – and whether current election equipment can be programmed to handle ranked choice ballots.
In order to differentiate her candidacy from Edevbie’s, especially if he receives Benson’s endorsement, Byrum will likely need to remain on the traditional end of the elections spectrum. Despite her recently stated opposition to ranked choice voting, she leaves much to be desired for those who express grave concerns over the state of American elections.
On her campaign page, Byrum boasts about combating misinformation and disinformation, otherwise known as the free speech rights of American citizens who do not trust the way elections are run or presented to the public. In 2022, she was a go-to interview choice for news outlets looking to delegitimize election integrity activists, referring to them as “election deniers.” In the same CNN interview, she had a warning about current clerks pursuing election-oriented reform, saying, “The foxes are absolutely inside the henhouses.” Her office complained to the press about Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to Ingham County regarding election data, rather than acknowledging citizens’ requests for transparency (which ironically, her campaign pledges to bring).
No Republican candidate has formally entered the race, although Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini is rumored to be considering a run. Once he, or any other serious candidate, enters the field, readers can expect the same level of scrutiny. Election integrity is not a partisan endeavor; it is, in fact, the crucial threshold between a society with law and order and one run under reckless disorder. Republican- and Democrat-run states alike have struggled to convince citizens that elections are administered fairly, and it is up to the citizens of Michigan to push these candidates to provide accurate and truthful answers regarding their goals and plans for running state elections.
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