Duggan, Benson Take Swings Over Corporate, Utility Campaign Donations

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 05/18/2026) (DEARBORN) – Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson took debate swings at each other over corporate and utility campaign contributions. Duggan accused Benson of pocketing a $1.5 million check from the —Babe Ruth of data centers,— and Benson called him the lying "corporate candidate."

Benson, Duggan and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson participated in a gubernatorial candidate forum hosted by the United Auto Workers' (UAW's) Local 6000 union chapter in Dearborn.

Republicans U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township) and Perry Johnson, the quality management business executive from Oakland County, were invited but did not attend.

Benson and Duggan became testy toward one another when a union member asked if candidates would commit to refusing donations from corporate political action committees (PAC).

"I'm not going to pretend like I'm not taking corporate money when I am," Duggan said, noting an $8,000 donation he received from Roger Penske from his large transportation services business.

However, he later called out Benson for accepting $1.5 million from Kenneth Duda and his wife in California, which was directed to her Michigan Legacy PAC. Duda, a high-level coder, is the president of Arista Networks, providing "client to cloud networking" services for large data center and artificial intelligence projects.

"The difference between me and the Secretary of State is I tell you that I am going to bridge the divide, have union and labor work together," Duggan said. "I don't sit here and say to you 'I'm not taking DTE money, I'm not taking corporate money' when I'm pocketing a $1.5 million check from the Babe Ruth of data centers, Ken Duda in California."

When asked about the Duda contribution, Benson told reporters that she had never actually even met them, and that they contributed to the PAC for investing in "pro-democracy leaders" during the 2024 election cycle.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) hosts gubernatorial forum with Duggan, Benson and Swanson in the Deaborn Local 600 Hall.

"I appreciate the distraction that was attempted to try to take away from the fact that the independent candidate is actually not independent, he's a corporate candidate," Benson said. "Those were a lot of words to try to distract from the fact that he's bought and paid for by corporate interest."

Furthermore, Benson tried to hit Duggan on having Gerry Anderson, the DTE Energy Company's former executive chair, on his team as an education policy advisor, as well as for continuing to keep his dark money backers undisclosed.

Benson added that while she took money from utility PACs while running for Secretary of State in 2010 (an unsuccessful run) and in 2018, she then "got to Lansing and saw how things worked and how corrupt things were."

When asked by reporters, Swanson said he had not heard Duggan and Benson go after each other like they did Monday night during prior events.

"I saw that they traded blows back and forth, and that's between them," Swanson said. "I'm sticking right down to what I know best."

Swanson continues to pay union dues as an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) member, linked to his work as a University of Michigan – Flint lecturer. He did admit there were people in attendance prepared to scrutinize Duggan.

For example, some Democrats going into Monday night’s forum highlighted Duggan's time as head of the Detroit Medical Center (DMC), a chapter beginning in 2004 after a $50 million bailout was set up by state and local officials to keep the system open.

Detroit Metro Times, a weekly "alternative" publication in the city, reported that as Duggan was leaving the DMC in 2012 to run for mayor, the hospital system was accused of violating federal labor law by laying off 17 unionized "nurse extenders" — or aides to registered nurses — and bringing in non-union personnel.

Additionally, the article said that financial disclosures show Duggan's yearly pay at the DMC jumping from $545,000 in 2004 to $1 million by 2008 and $2.41 million in 2011.

"Nobody was laid off at DMC," Duggan said. "There were 11,000 employees. By the time I left, we had 14,000 employees. We had grown … the day I kicked off my campaign for mayor, Mike Harris, the president of the receiving-largest union at the DMC, stood up and did the introduction for my campaign."

When asked if he would support expanding unemployment benefits and covering workers who go on strike, Duggan said he fully supports it and will work with the Legislature to "do anything and get it done."

Swanson also supported a baseline of unemployment benefits for striking workers, and Benson said she supports ensuring striking workers have access to unemployment payments and wants to connect with leaders nationally to pass such benefit protections.

Candidates were asked as well if they would support adding more state employees to the hybrid pension system that Michigan State Police (MSP) troopers receive, which provides access to state retirement contributions exempt from Michigan's income tax and 401(K) contributions.

Swanson said "of course" to such benefits, adding that he would appoint "labor-minded" individuals to the civil commission overseeing government wages and benefits.

Benson described that when she stepped in as Secretary of State in 2019, she saw that previous administrations had turned jobs seasonal or part-time in nature so that Department of State employees wouldn't have as much access to public pension benefits.

"I want to do in every department what we've done in ours … extending full employment protections, not just hybrid pensions, but other types of things like pay premiums," Benson said. "If you have extra skills, like you're multilingual, which is important in our branch office to be able to speak Arabic in certain places in Dearborn … you can get paid a premium."

Being elected mayor in the same year that Detroit filed for its historical bankruptcy, Duggan explained bonding with city employees who recently had their pay, pensions and health care benefits cut back. He said they cut things viewed as unnecessary and worked to bring jobs and businesses back to Detroit.

"We had some workers making as low as $12 an hour, and every single year, as we made those gains, we shared it with the workers. We enhanced their pay, we enhanced their benefits, and I'm going to say this proudly, those workers who were scared in 2013 … 4,500 have endorsed Mike Duggan for governor."