Interfaith Action Announces its 2022

Leadership for the Common Good Award

Photo of Quilted Award of US National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman Presented to Secretary Benson

This year’s award is presented to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Secretary Benson is being recognized for her leadership in protecting voting rights, ensuring full and legal participation in this core aspect of our democracy.

Secretary Benson was presented with the award in her Detroit office. She was also presented with a quilt portrait of the US’s National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman along with a copy of her book The Hill We Climb. The quilt was designed and crafted by a Guatemalan immigrant, Mercedes Moran, who is a long time resident of Berrien County.

The unfounded lies about the security and accuracy of the Michigan 2020 election (before and after the election) required Secretary Benson to uphold the core principles of our country’s democracy as well as Michigan’s constitutional mandates. Secretary Benson ensured that every voter could participate in an election that occurred in the midst of once-in-a-lifetime pandemic - an election that hundreds of audits, numerous courts in Michigan and across the county, and statewide officials from both political parties subsequently determined was fully legitimate and untarnished by fraud.

Secretary Benson was a vocal advocate in support of local election officials who were subjected to physical threats and verbal abuse. She is the author of the book: State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process. Secretary Benson has also been active in promoting civics education in schools and was the founder and director of the Michigan Center for Election Law.

Secretary Benson received her legal training at Harvard Law School where she the editor of the Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review. She was the youngest Dean of a top ranked law school serving as Dean of Wayne State Law School where she was instrumental in establishing programs to provide underserved communities with access to legal resources.

A selection committee of seven individuals, chaired by Eugene Schoon of Bridgman, reviewed candidates for the award and selected Secretary Benson as the nominee.

The concept of the common good is enshrined in the documents and institutions of the US government; and it is a concept that is embedded in the theologies and traditions of all religions. For example, James Madison, one of the authors of the Federalist papers which defended the US Constitution argued that “political constitutions should seek out wise, discerning rulers in search of the common good”. Pope Francis, speaking amidst the pandemic, stated “….each person’s true good is a common good….the common good is a true good for the person. If a person only seeks his or her own good, that person is selfish. Instead, a person is more of a person when his/her own good is open to everyone, when it is shared.”