Garlin Gilchrist wins Democratic nomination for secretary of state

“Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Michigan’s free newsletter here. DETROIT — Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II won the Democratic nomination for secretary of state at the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement convention on Sunday. The choice by Democratic delegates sets up what’s expected to be a tight general election between Gilchrist and Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini, who won the Republican nomination last month . Whoever ultimately wins will be Michigan’s next top election official, replacing Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Gilchrist defeated two other Democrats, former Michigan Lottery Commissioner Suzanna Shkreli and Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, for the nomination on the first ballot, meaning he received an outright majority of the votes cast. Exact vote totals were not immediately available. The convention took place at Huntington Place, one floor up from where supporters of President Donald Trump banged on windows in the days after the 2020 election, demanding to stop the counting of absentee ballots. There were more than 7,250 delegates at the convention. Michigan doesn’t choose its secretary of state candidates through primaries. Instead, parties select their nominees for certain down-ballot offices, like secretary of state and attorney general, through a delegate vote at conventions. Candidates at the Democratic convention must first get signatures from 15% of delegates in order to be considered for statewide office. If Gilchrist wins the general election, he will be only the second Black secretary of state in Michigan’s history, following Richard H. Austin, who served from 1971 to 1995. It would also make him the first Democrat since Austin to succeed another Democrat in the seat. Gilchrist is a software engineer turned lieutenant governor Gilchrist has served as the lieutenant governor of Michigan since 2019, when he was sworn in as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s second-in-command. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Gilchrist has a background in software engineering — an experience that he says would help him be an effective secretary of state. He worked for Microsoft and a number of political advocacy groups before moving back to Michigan to work for the City of Detroit as a developer. He ran for Detroit city clerk in 2017, but lost to longtime Clerk Janice Winfrey by just shy of 1,500 votes. Other than lieutenant governor, he hasn’t run for any other elected offices. A native Detroiter, Gilchrist still lives in the city with his wife and their three children. State Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, a Democrat from Grand Rapids, nominated him for secretary of state at the convention. Brinks argued that Gilchrist would be “ready for the job on day one.” “As secretary of state, he will protect the right to vote, defend the will of the people, and ensure Michigan’s elections remain secure, fair, and free from political interference,” she said. The delegates who voted for Gilchrist said they liked his energy and considered him the candidate most likely to win a competitive general election. Tom Finholt, a delegate from Ann Arbor, told Votebeat he supported Gilchrist’s “take-action stance.” “I see him protecting the state from federal encroachment on elections,” Finholt said while wearing a Gilchrist shirt and holding a cutout of the lieutenant governor’s face. “He’s a tech guy, and I think that means he will be able to see through the smokescreens of the tech oligarchs.” Finholt — who helped hire Gilchrist to one of his previous jobs as founding director at the University of Michigan’s Center for Social Media Responsibility — lauded the work Gilchrist has already done as an elected official and said he was the best candidate to build on Benson’s accomplishments in the office. Gilchrist vows to protect elections from Trump If elected, Gilchrist has promised to fight Trump’s executive orders on voting, including protecting Michigan voters’ right to vote by mail. “If he wants to mess with Michiganders’ right to vote, he’s gonna have to come through me,” Gilchrist tweeted about Trump after his most recent voting-focused order , which aims to restrict mail voting and potential voting by noncitizens, including through the creation of citizenship lists. It’s part of a larger emphasis that Gilchrist has placed on voter privacy since joining the race in January after dropping his gubernatorial bid . After Republicans nominated Forlini, Gilchrist immediately took shots at him as a “MAGA extremist” who would work with federal Republicans to “weaponize [voters’] private data.” Forlini returned the favor on Sunday night after Gilchrist was nominated, saying in a statement that while he respected Gilchrist as a person, “I am concerned with what I had read in the Detroit News recently, that Mr. Gilchrist showed up for work in his current role only 6% of the time," contrasting Gilchrist’s frequent absences presiding over the Michigan Senate as lieutenant governor with Forlini’s “100% attendance” rate as a state representative. Gilchrist has also promised to advocate for legislation to improve campaign finance regulations and ensure voters know their ballots are secure. On his campaign website , he has also promised to modernize licensing and registration for cars and “hold accountable companies that rip you off when you get your car fixed.” After his victory was announced around 9 p.m. on Sunday, Gilchrist was exuberant. In his acceptance speech, he criticized Republicans for being “small,” citing his own height — 6 feet, 8 inches — as the stature needed to defend voting rights against Trump. “We need to make sure Donald Trump is not as successful at rigging voting as he has been at raising prices,” Gilchrist told the crowd. Gilchrist told Votebeat after winning the nomination that the first thing he expected to do if he wins the job is to prepare for all the elections ahead. “We have to make sure that we start getting prepared for the election administration challenges that will inevitably come from the Trump administration during our 2027 and 2028 elections in Michigan,” he said. “We need to make sure we get to work preparing the rule-making process for the next independent citizens redistricting commission.” Gilchrist faced criticism for comments from his governor bid Secretary of state was not the first job Gilchrist sought this election cycle. He was originally running to replace the term-limited Whitmer before dropping out in January and switching to the secretary of state race. He was criticized for saying during a speech at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s national convention that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “is committing a genocide on the Palestinian people.” He later apologized but clarified that, while he was not retracting his beliefs, he regretted that some had perceived the comments as anti-Semitic. Gilchrist’s opponents also questioned whether he really wanted to be secretary of state or just jumped in after recognizing there wasn’t a clear path to the governorship. Shkreli told MIRS earlier this month that Gilchrist “told me point-blank that he didn’t want this job.” Shkreli joined the race in December, more than a month before Gilchrist did. Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican, pointed to that in a tongue-in-cheek “endorsement” of Gilchrist in which Hall said Gilchrist would be the easiest secretary of state candidate for Republicans to beat. Asked about it Sunday, Gilchrist said that his goal for the job was to “prevent MAGA from using it to consolidate power and hurting and targeting people.” “I’m running for this office because it is important and because the threat to votes, voting, and voters in Michigan is so urgent that this office is the one that we need to make sure that we hold,” he said. Hayley Harding is a reporter for Votebeat based in Michigan. Contact Hayley at hharding@votebeat.org .

Summary generated from the RSS feed of Votebeat. All article rights belong to the original publisher. Click through to read the full piece on www.votebeat.org.