Welcome back to the Lincoln Project. I'm your host, Reed Gailan. Today, I'm joined by Michigan's

Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, who's been in office since 2019. The first Democrat to do so since

1995. Prior to that, Secretary Benson was dean of Wayne State University Law School,

co-founder of Military Spaces of Michigan, and his author of the book, State Secretaries of State,

Guardians of the Democratic Process. Secretary Benson, thanks for joining me today.

Thanks for having me, great to be here. So Secretary Benson, today we're going to talk about the

issue of voting rights and the barrage of threats against those rights in the state of Michigan,

but also elsewhere, as well as how we see the political landscape in general, both the present and

the future. But first, I want to talk about the importance of preserving democracy. So let's get

into that. So here we are, we're recording this on Monday afternoon, and Secretary Benson,

earlier this morning, you tweeted a statement that I wanted to share with our listeners. It says,

quote, if there is no accountability, if there are no consequences for those leading and

facilitating efforts to undo democracy and thwart the will of the people up to and including the

tragedy of January 6th, then there's nothing to stop it from happening again or escalating in the

future. Now, obviously, Secretary Benson, you and I spoke a fair bit last year during 2020,

and this is what our mission, Lincoln Projects mission and the Pro Democracy Coalition is all about.

So is someone who is not only an elected official, but also someone who has stood for office as a

politician, when you saw January 6th in that moment, and now you have, you've seen things progress,

what did that moment open up for you and tell us a little bit more about your belief and accountability,

which certainly we share as well? I think the entire post-election era in that 60, 70 days,

in between when the polls closed, and we got to January, including in January 6th, was rife with

daily multifaceted, multi-tiered attempts to, is that also recently referred to, use every

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