Nesbitt On Trump’s Pitch To 'Nationalize' Detroit Elections: Sounds Good!

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 02/05/2026) President Donald Trump's suggestion in the Oval Office Wednesday that federal officials should step in to administer elections in Detroit drew swift, same-day condemnations from top Democratic leaders in Michigan.

On Thursday, Senate Republican Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton) issued a sharply divergent reaction to the President’s idea.

“President Trump is 100% right because Michigan voters cannot trust (Secretary of State) Jocelyn Benson," Nesbitt said, referring to the state’s top election official and current Democratic frontrunner in the gubernatorial race.

He added, “She continues to fight against transparency and accountability, refuses to remove dead people from our state’s voter rolls and is happy to let noncitizens vote in our elections.

She’s the worst Secretary of State in America and shouldn’t be running our elections without checks and balances.”

Trump first suggested the federal government should "nationalize" elections during a podcast appearance Tuesday, saying they’ve been “horribly” run by some states. After being asked by reporters on Wednesday about those comments, he cited Detroit, among other cities, as one example of a place where the 2020 election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden, was “rigged.”

Nesbitt’s support for Trump’s proposal reflects the salience and staying power in Michigan politics of the president's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

Well after a 2021 report by the then-Republican-controlled state Senate found “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud” in the state’s administration of the 2020 election, speculation has endured by Trump and members of his party that there indeed was. That skepticism now sets the stage, ahead of this year’s midterms, for yet another election season in the swing-state marked by intense partisan discord over whether its election process can be trusted.

To make things messier, Benson, the person who many Republicans insist is at fault for the alleged mismanagement of the 2020 election, is set to be on the ballot in this year’s election as the Democratic candidate for governor.

In a November letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, a group of 21 Republican lawmakers in Michigan, including Nesbitt, said that presents an “inherent and unavoidable conflict of interest” on Benson’s part. As such, the lawmakers requested extra “federal monitoring and oversight” of the election. (Nesbitt noted that letter in his press release Thursday.

Meanwhile, another Republican gubernatorial candidate, U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township), took his own shots at Benson, telling WWJ Newsradio 950 Thursday morning that she should cooperate with federal efforts to scrub state voting lists to make sure “there is no hanky-panky going on.”

“She's failing to work with local officials. She's failing to work with the federal government, which means that she believes that she is the judge and jury,” James said. “I think someone who believes that they're the judge and jury as Secretary of State is disqualifying themselves from being governor of the state.”

Benson, for her part, has rebuked Trump’s pitch to nationalize elections in cities like Detroit. Thursday, after speaking in front of the Detroit Economic Club, Benson said the next governor needs to be willing to underscore what Trump's calls are actually about, “which is an unpopular president trying to avoid being held accountable at the ballot box.”

“We welcome transparency, but we also expect everyone who sees the facts to speak the truth, especially because the ramifications in moments like this are so significant, not just for our democracy, but for citizens' ability to have faith in our leaders and their ability to hold them accountable,” Benson said.

She said she always encourages Republicans and Democrats with questions to become poll workers, and see “exactly how many layers of security that we have.”

Other Michigan Democrats have joined with Benson in rebuking Trump’s proposal.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement Wednesday that “any attempt by the federal government to take over Michigan elections should be viewed as an attempt to take away Michiganders' constitutional right to vote.”

Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), who is running for U.S. Senate, said Michigan “has been a target of Trump’s election lies for years.” U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Oakland County) weighed in Tuesday, before Trump singled out Detroit, saying the pitch to nationalize elections is “about Republicans and Trump trying to tip the scales in their favor.”