GOP election conspiracist given platform in House committee to rail against Michigan Democrats

Former senator and 2018 Republican gubernatorial candidate Patrick Colbeck, who has since become a purveyor of election conspiracy theories in the wake of the 2020 election, testified before the Michigan House Election Integrity Committee. July 15, 2025 | Screenshot

A former Republican lawmaker, gubernatorial candidate and election conspiracy theorist on Tuesday asked a Michigan House of Representatives committee to request federal investigations against three of Michigan’s top ranking Democrats, whom he has repeatedly accused of fraud and other crimes, including bribery.

Pat Colbeck, who served in the Michigan Senate from 2011 to 2019 and sought the Republican nomination for governor in 2018, presented a laundry list of election integrity concerns to the House Election Integrity Committee, chaired by state Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Martin).

The three officials Colbeck asked to be investigated include Attorney General Dana Nessel, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Supreme Court Justice Kyra Harris Bolden.

Nessel spokesperson Danny Wimmer, in a statement to Michigan Advance, dismissed Colbeck’s claims and accusations as “unhinged.”

“Anyone familiar with Patrick Colbeck’s post-legislative career of peddling unhinged and unproven election conspiracies can see how absurd it was to host him before a House committee,” Wimmer said. “His efforts have been rejected time and again by election experts and the courts. The fact that this committee entertained his testimony suggests they are fundamentally unserious about strengthening the laws that defend our elections. Attorney General Nessel stands by her comprehensive, significant work in investigating and prosecuting election law violations during her tenure in office.”

Benson spokesperson Angela Benander told the Advance that the committee was “doing a real disservice to Michigan voters by continuing to platform these widely discredited self-appointed ‘experts’ and allowing them to rehash their failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election.”

“It’s July 2025 – why are they spending taxpayer resources and valuable time on these debunked conspiracy theories? While everyone else is rightly focused on passing a budget and on legislation that solves problems for people in Michigan, the [House Election Integrity Committee] has hosted a parade of extremists to spout false information about our state’s secure elections,” Benander said. “It’s been seven months, and the committee has not introduced any legislation based on these presentations. The people of Michigan deserve to know why the Chair and the Speaker are letting a small group of social media-based election deniers drive the agenda.”

Benander went on to say that Michigan’s elections were secure, the results were accurate and that the Michigan Department of State was ready to work with the House on tangible improvements to election systems when the House was also ready.

A request for comment on Colbeck’s commentary sent to Bolden was not returned at the time of publication.

Colbeck, since the end of his political career, has been at the forefront of election conspiracy theories surrounding the outcome of the 2020 election, in which he claimed election officials at the former TCF Center – now Huntington Center – Detroit counting location connected election equipment to the internet. Colbeck claimed there was evidence of vote manipulation, assertions that were later reviewed in court and deemed unsubstantiated.

Republicans since that election have sought to relitigate the 2020 election results and have dedicated much time since retaking the Michigan House in 2024 to bolstering election security based on some of those past claims.

Colbeck’s invitation to the House Election Integrity Committee recounted many of his past claims, but also included new claims that the Michigan Bureau of Elections unlawfully destroyed election records, which Colbeck said was admitted to under oath in Hillsdale County court proceedings.

The former legislator was referring to the case against Stefanie Lambert Junttila, who is facing trial in Oakland County for alleged attempts to access and tamper with voting tabulators following the 2020 election. She also faces charges in Hillsdale, where it was alleged that she and former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott permitted an unauthorized computer examiner to access voter data concerning the 2020 election, which included non-public information.

Junttila requested to adjourn the start of Monday’s trial in Oakland, citing preliminary examination testimony in the in Hillsdale case from Michigan Director of Elections Jonathan Brater that she said contradicted statements he made to a grand jury, which indicted Junttila alongside former Republican candidate for attorney general Matt DePerno and former State Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City) for allegedly tampering with election equipment.

After recounting his various concerns with Michigan’s election systems, Colbeck said he was recommending the Legislature pass new laws to fix the problems he highlighted, subpoena officials for additional information and request federal investigations against Nessel, Benson and Bolden.

Colbeck, based on the so-called evidence he brought with him to the committee meeting, asked the House to request a federal investigation into Nessel for fraud, willful neglect of duty, and intimidation of election officials in the wake of the 2020 election.

He accused Benson of deprivation of rights under the color of law, bribery, fraud, willful neglect of duty, intimidation of election officials, and the unlawful destruction of election records.

Colbeck similarly accused Bolden of bribery, which was connected to his claim against Benson. Colbeck has for months claimed that Benson gave Bolden’s campaign for Michigan Supreme Court, in a bid to retain her seat after being appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, $82,500 while the high court was gearing up to hear the O’Halloran v. Benson election lawsuit.

Colbeck said the opinion in the case, which was favorable to Benson and her department, was written by Bolden. Colbeck claimed that was evidence of bribery.

“I can’t get into the mens rea [or the guilt of mind] on this. I don’t know if she had the intent of it being a bribe or not,” Colbeck said. “I don’t have access to those communications. All I have is FOIA access.”

Colbeck also said he requested the same kind of investigation into that political donation from the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, the Judicial Tenure Commission and now federal authorities, in addition to his request to the House on Tuesday.

On the subpoena front, which the House has shown a recent willingness to flex against Benson and Nessel, in particular, Colbeck suggested that the House seek to obtain the state’s Qualified Voter File transaction log and accountancy of data formatting errors.

“I think it’s important for us to know who, when, what and how these records were actually updated,” Colbeck said. “I do applaud the representatives who support the issuing of subpoenas for the election training materials, and if you recall the House asked nicely for these materials before being forced to issue a subpoena.”

He said that everyday citizens also hit brick walls when trying to request this information via the Freedom of Information Act, and that when requests are denied, “we often have to take the advice of Jocelyn Benson’s lawyer and sue for access to the information.”

“That approach is often expensive and time consuming,” Colbeck said. “Legislative subpoenas offer an alternative to this burdensome approach to election transparency.”

The data formatting error request would include seeking coding scripts, raw data and communications including Bureau of Elections chat records.

He said access to this information could validate or invalidate Benson’s narrative on the security of past elections.

In questions for Colbeck, state Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren) questioned his commitment to transparency and asked why he hadn’t sought to relitigate other elections, like his own election in 2011, the 2016 and the 2024 elections, in which Republicans surged and saw President Donald Trump ascend to the Oval Office.

In response, Colbeck said he would entertain a full audit of those elections, saying that was the heart of his request to the Legislature.

“For the record, I called for an audit of the 2016 election. I’ve called for an audit in the wake of the 2024 election,” Colbeck said. “What’s happening right now is that we have this big, little mystery box called the election system, and I think it needs to be opened up with a bright flashlight, and we should see it across the board and examine every single election.”

Xiong countered that there were real threats to American and Michigan democracy on the horizon. She worried about election issues in the 2026 election, which will occur with Republicans in charge of all levers of the federal government, and questioned why Colbeck was trying to relitigate the past.

“I did see your suggestions,” Xiong said. “You were a senator once. How come you didn’t introduce legislation back then to fix these issues? When did they start?”

Colbeck said he attempted to hold a committee hearing like the one the House was holding on Tuesday, parsing various anomalies in the 2016 election, saying that his staffers had discovered discrepancies in the pollbook numbers and the ballot containers.

He went on to say that his musings on election security defied party affiliations, because it was his own then-Senate majority leader, Arlan Meekof (R-Grand Haven), who he said prevented him from holding that hearing and having a frank discussion.