Former Michigan Lottery Commissioner and Whitmer Administration cabinet member Suzanna Shkreli announced she’s running for Michigan Secretary of State on Monday.
Shkreli joins the race to be the Democratic nominee for the position as three other Democrats have already entered the race.
Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie, Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum and former state Sen. Adam Hollier have already launched their own campaigns.
Democratic delegates at the state party’s nominating convention on April 19, not voters during a primary election, determines the candidate who will face the Republican.
Shkreli told Michigan Chronicle Monday that she joined the crowded field because Michigan Democrats fear the Republicans could win the office.
“I’ve heard from Democrats all across the state, they’re worried about us holding this office, and I do believe I’m the best candidate to do all that,” Shkreli said.
Shkreli says if elected she would create digital driver’s licenses like other states offer to drivers for Michigan residents, work for faster election results and offer walk-in hours at Secretary of State branches for seniors.
Before her role as lottery commissioner, Shkreli served in the administration as the state’s first ever director of juvenile justice reform in Department of Health and Human Services, and in another cabinet role as Michigan’s child advocate.
Shkreli also served as Whitmer’s deputy legal counsel and worked as an assistant Macomb County Prosecutor where she prosecuted crimes against children.
“I wasn’t planning to run for this, you know, I’ve been happy in my role with the Whitmer administration,” she said. “I have so much respect for her, it was hard to leave. I love being the lottery commissioner. I spent the last nearly two years maximizing revenue to the school you fund. But over the last year, I’ve had tremendous concerns about the actions of extremists, and it just seems that our democratic institutions are under attack more than ever, and that threat persists.”
The Shkreli campaign released a video announcing her campaign highlighting her background as the assistant Macomb County prosecutor and as a child of immigrants who fled persecution under authoritarianism.
“I’ll never look away as the same type of dangers my parents fled from threaten our voice and our vote here at home,” she said in her launch video.
22 Republican state legislators in Michigan sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi last month asking for “comprehensive” federal oversight of the 2026 election, citing the fact that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is running for governor.
“That attack, I think is completely without merit,” Shkreli said in an interview Monday. “Secretary Benson has shown time and time again that she has integrity, and she’s going to follow the law. Other candidates have been in that position before running for higher office, and it hadn’t been a problem.”
Benson herself was the Secretary of State during Michigan’s 2022 elections in which she ran for reelection while administering the state’s elections without accusations of conflict.
The Department of State says the request from Republicans is an invitation for President Donald Trump to interfere in Michigan’s elections.
Edevbie became the first Democrat to launch a campaign for Secretary of State when he filed his candidate committee earlier this year in January.
Since then, Edevbie has raised 228,876.64, including more than $73,000 during the most recent fundraising period between July and October.
He’s spending a majority of the money he’s raised on digital ads, consulting and payroll. He reported $34,598 left in his war chest.
Hollier, who dropped his Congressional challenge against U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar to run for Secretary of State, is sitting on $348,635, campaign finance records show. He left his bid for Congress with $297,286 left in the bank.
Campaign finance records show Byrum has raised $135,975.26 since launching her campaign in May. She has $103,608 in her war chest.
The three candidates have separated themselves by political philosophy, election administration experience and identity.
Hollier has pointed to the fact that the last elected Black statewide officeholder was Richard Austin, the state’s first Black Secretary of State. Austin was the first Black person to hold that position in any U.S. state upon his election in 1970.
Edevbie has said he won’t take corporate PAC money while Byrum, a county clerk and former state representative, claims she has the edge in experience when it comes to election administration.
Whitmer announced Monday following Shkreli’s resignation that Joe Froehlich will serve as acting commissioner of the Michigan Lottery.
Froehlich previously served as chief operating officer of the Lottery, deputy commissioner of Legal Affairs and Charitable Gaming, and director of Compliance and Legal Affairs.