House Republicans pressed Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Wednesday over concerns that the state’s voter registration partnership with President Joe Biden’s Small Business Administration unfairly benefits the president’s re-election campaign. 

Small Business Committee Chair Roger Williams (R-TX) sent a letter to Benson demanding answers on the Memorandum of Understanding “to promote civic engagement and voter registration in Michigan.” According to Republicans, the agreement between Benson and the Small Business Administration appears to primarily target Democrat areas for voter registration. 

“The SBA’s job is to help our nation’s small businesses,” the letter from Williams and Michigan House Republicans said. “Sadly, it appears the Biden Administration has abused the trust of the American taxpayer, betrayed the mission of the SBA, and weaponized the powers and resources of the federal government to serve his own re-election interests.”

According to the letter, first reported by Fox News, the Small Business Administration has also favored Democrat areas for outreach events. The committee said that 39 of 52 small business events scheduled in Michigan from January to November 2024 are in counties favorable to Democrats. They also wrote that all of the visits by SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman and Deputy Administrator Dilawar Syed were at events in Democrat-favorable counties. 

“While the SBA claims no actual voter registration efforts have occurred, it is curious that the SBA Administrator, appointed to help all small businesses thrive, has concentrated her efforts in areas key to the Biden campaign securing re-election,” the letter says. 

In the letter, the committee asks Benson to provide all communications between Michigan Secretary of State employees and federal employees about the voter registration partnership and for details on whether Republicans have been invited to participate in business outreach events. 

The letter cited an undercover video from investigative journalist James O’Keefe showing Guzman’s chief of staff appearing to say that the administration only did events with Democrats to help them get elected while ignoring Republicans.

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Michigan GOP Rep. Lisa McClain said the partnership between Michigan and the Biden administration was problematic.

“The United States is built upon the principle of free and fair elections, but the Biden administration seems to not care about upholding our democracy,” she said. “Instead, they’re using the taxpayer funded SBA to coordinate voter registration with Michigan’s Secretary of State. This is an unbelievable abuse of power that will ruin the integrity of our elections. I am gravely concerned about the SBA’s plot, and I will not rest until I get to the bottom of it.”

Michigan’s collaboration with the SBA stems from an executive order issued by President Biden shortly after he took office requiring federal agencies to “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.”

Michigan is expected to be one of the pivotal states for the 2024 election. According to an average of polls, former President Donald Trump holds a 0.6 percent lead over Biden.