Jocelyn Benson’s husband earned $370,000 last year working on a Michigan data center project, even as her campaign insisted her family made no money from data centers at all.
Quick Take
- Gateway Pundit says artificial intelligence found three false statements by Michigan governor candidate Jocelyn Benson in just 23 days.
- Bridge Michigan’s fact check found her husband earned $370,000 last year, partly for work on the Saline Township data center.
- Benson told Bridge Michigan in July that “none of my family is profiting from data centers.”
- A separate fight over Michigan’s voter rolls between the state and the Justice Department remains tied up in federal courts.
The Data Center Claim Under The Microscope
Benson’s campaign faced a Republican attack ad claiming she stood to get rich off a data center in Saline Township. Her team pushed back hard. The campaign said her family had “not made any money from data centers.” Benson herself told Bridge Michigan at a campaign stop in Suttons Bay, “none of my family is profiting from data centers.” That is a clean, simple denial. Voters heard it as an absolute statement.
Bridge Michigan’s own reporting complicates that simple denial. Her husband, Ryan Friedrichs, worked as senior vice president for Related Companies, the firm developing the Saline project. He earned $370,000 from his employer last year, at least partly for that work. Bridge Michigan found no evidence he stood to pocket millions, as the attack ad claimed. But “no money at all” and “$370,000 in salary tied partly to the project” are not the same thing.
Why The Wording Matters
Related Companies says Friedrichs earned no commission on the deal and no longer works on it. That is a fair point in his defense. Still, a salary tied to a project counts as income connected to that project, even without a commission check. Gateway Pundit argues Benson’s team chose language built to sound cleaner than the facts allow. That is a reasonable read of the gap between her quote and Bridge Michigan’s numbers.
A Second Fight Over Voter Records
The Gateway Pundit piece also points to Benson’s comments about the Justice Department’s request for Michigan’s voter rolls. The Justice Department first asked Michigan for an unredacted statewide voter list back in July 2025. Michigan refused, arguing state and federal privacy laws blocked a full handover. Courts have mostly sided with Michigan so far. A federal appeals court rejected the administration’s push for the records in June, and the dispute may be headed to the Supreme Court.
That court record matters for judging Benson’s public statements on the topic. Eleven federal courts this year ruled the Justice Department cannot demand complete, unredacted voter files from states. Whether Benson’s specific words on television crossed from fair summary into misleading spin is a separate question from whether Michigan was legally right to refuse the request. The legal fight and the rhetorical fight are not the same argument, even though critics often blend them together.
Why Coverage Gaps Fuel Distrust
Gateway Pundit’s core complaint is not just about Benson’s words. It is about which outlets chase the story. Bridge Michigan did the detailed fact-checking work on the data center claim, and it deserves credit for digging into the $370,000 figure. But national outlets covering the governor’s race have largely skipped that detail, favoring Benson’s framing of Republican attacks as “despicable lies.” Voters deserve both halves of that argument, not just the half that favors one campaign’s talking points.
Jocelyn Benson’s record as Secretary of State does not make the “yes” side easy.
She spent eight years running elections and the DMV. Courts repeatedly told her she overstepped on signature rules, challenger manuals, and guidance to clerks. She used a state building for her own…
— MAGA Don (@dbarton05) September 30, 2026
None of this settles whether Benson lied outright or simply chose careless words under pressure. An accusation of lying is a serious charge, and Bridge Michigan’s own reporting stops short of calling her claim false outright. But the $370,000 figure is real, documented, and worth every Michigan voter’s attention before November. Skipping that detail does not make it disappear. It just means voters have to go find it themselves.
Sources:
thegatewaypundit.com, mlive.com, talkingpointsmemo.com, votebeat.org
