Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State (& gubernatorial candidate for 2026), shares her story of standing up for what is right in her memoir, The Purposeful Warrior.

Jocelyn shares stories of what inspired her to follow her path, including her time with the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she worked undercover, investigating hate groups & hate crimes. She broke barriers Wayne State, becoming the Dean of Wayne Law. Despite being a leader, she was still subjected to sexual harassment by a colleague, & when her voice wasn’t heard by her team, she continued to speak out and empowered other women in her community to be heard.

After that, Benson worked for Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality in New York, earning a 6 figure salary in a dream job, but the calling to serve the public became louder and louder, and she listened.

Jocelyn Benson was elected as Secretary of State in 2018. She became a target of Donald Trump, for mailing out absentee ballot APPLICATIONS in 2020, during a global pandemic, giving constituents the opportunity to have the choice of how to vote while practicing social distancing.

I enjoyed reading about what lead & motivated her to become a powerful force in the state of Michigan.

I found her personal story inspirational enough that the “self-help” parts of the book could have been omitted. Benson’s example has re-ignited the passion within to navigate life with purpose and righteousness.

The Purposeful Warrior is a reminder to keep pushing through and stand up for our rights during this turbulent season in America.

This is a self-help book interspersed with vignettes of Benson's experiences. I was primarily interested in learning about Benson, and those tidbits are sprinkled in between the advice on how to be a "purposeful warrior." It follows a fairly standard model with each chapter introducing a topic, sharing a personal story about Benson or someone she knows that illustrates the topic, then moves into a discussion and explanation of said topic and story. Benson has done so many incredible things throughout her life and career that I was fascinated to read about, but it was confusing at times because they are not shared chronologically. Ultimately I skimmed quite a bit of this book because I wasn't personally interested in the self-help aspects, but I have no doubt that there will be others who fully appreciate the wisdom shared in this book.

Okay, Dana Nessel, I'm going to need you to write a book now so that I can say that I've read the “those women from Michigan” trifecta. Please and thank you.

Anyway, I have no idea how to rate this book. I generally despise self-help books, but I went into this one knowing that it was a self-help book so I can't really fault the author for that, I suppose. I mainly wanted to read the stories about the author's life that are wedged in between the instructional bits, because I am fascinated by the three women who are currently leading Michigan (Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson). Benson was thrust into the spotlight in 2020, when President Trump called her a “rogue Secretary of State” on Twitter (sorry not sorry, Elon, it'll never be “X” to me) for legally having mailed out absentee ballot applications to her constituents during the pandemic. Well, technically Trump said she mailed out the actual absentee ballots and not the applications, but I'm sure he was just misinformed and not intentionally attempting to mislead anyone. 🙄 (<- This is heavy sarcasm, just in case the eye roll emoji didn't make it clear.)

And speaking of Trump 🤮🤮, I initially worried that I might have to DNF this book. One of the initial chapters extensively discusses Trump's 2020 election and pandemic-related shenanigans, and it was just about more than I could handle. Things were bad enough then, but reading about that period while actively going through another Trump-related whatever-in-the-fark-this-is we have going on right now *gesticulates wildly at the US government* was too much. Luckily, while Trump does come back into the conversation later, this book is about much more than just the 2020 election.

Each chapter discusses ways that you too can become a “purposeful warrior” and stand up for what's right. I'll admit that I frequently skimmed the preachy self-help parts, but I did enjoy the stories from Benson's life that were used as examples. Well, mostly … she's one of those overachievers that makes me wonder what the heck I've done with my life. I mean, she's only two years older than I am and does more before breakfast on any given day than I manage in, well … years. She went to Harvard and Oxford and has started various nonprofits and won elections and run a trillion marathons and just announced a run for governor of Michigan, and meanwhile I've, uh, attended a school that was 175 kilometers (and worlds away) from Oxford, run one 5k (very, very slowly and with lots of gasping), and maybe lots of days manage to actually get out of my pajamas? I did find it a little weird that she constantly uses herself as inspiration, but I guess when you're basically Wonder Woman you're allowed to be a little braggy.

So, yeah, I have no idea how to rate this book. I enjoyed the memoir-ish parts of it quite a bit but the self-help stuff was a little lost on me. I guess let's just say two stars for the preachy bits, four stars for the personal stories, and five stars because Benson really has managed to make going to the Michigan SOS (DMV) much, much less unpleasant than it used to be. 3.66 (averaged) stars, rounded up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and The Open Field for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is May 6, 2025.