Gretchen Whitmer

Whitmer originally ran for the Michigan House of Representatives in the 1990s but was unsuccessful.[10] In 2000, she tried again and was elected to represent the 23rd legislative district. She was reelected in 2002 and 2004.[11]

In March 2006, Whitmer won a special election to the Michigan State Senate, replacing Virg Bernero, who had been elected mayor of Lansing in November 2005.[12] She was elected to a full term in November, and reelected in 2010. In 2011, Whitmer's Democratic colleagues unanimously chose her to be the Senate Democratic Leader, making her the first woman to lead a party caucus in the Senate.[6] Due to term limits, Whitmer was unable to run for reelection in 2014 and left office in 2015.[13] In 2013, she received national recognition when she discussed her experience of being sexually assaulted.[14] She told the story during a debate about abortion rights, particularly for victims of rape, arguing victims should be allowed to terminate pregnancies that result from rape.[15]

On January 3, 2017, Whitmer announced she would run in the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial race.[22]

On August 7, 2018, Whitmer became the Democratic nominee for governor of Michigan.[23] She won all 83 counties in the state in the Democratic primary.[24]

In July 2018, Republican officials accused Whitmer of supporting the movement to abolish ICE, a claim Whitmer disputed. She said that if elected she would focus on improving Michigan's "fundamentals", such as schools, roads, and water systems.[25]

Whitmer's main opponent was Republican Bill Schuette, the term-limited Attorney General of Michigan. The two candidates met for a debate on October 12, 2018, in Grand Rapids at WOOD-TV. A second debate was held at WDIV studios in Detroit on October 24.[26]

Whitmer defeated Schuette in the November 6 election by nearly a 10-point margin.[27]

Whitmer speaking at a National Guard ceremony in January 2019

Whitmer describes herself as a progressive Democrat[28] who can work with state legislators from different political perspectives.[28]

As both a gubernatorial candidate and as governor, one of Whitmer's key pledges was to "fix the damn roads", a reference to Michigan's struggling infrastructure. Her initial post-election plan to fund road repairs with a 45-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase was, however, deeply unpopular, with one poll finding it opposed by 75% of Michigan voters, including majorities of both Democrats and independents.[29] Democratic legislators in Michigan's Republican-controlled legislature largely declined to support the plan, which would have nearly tripled Michigan's gas tax and potentially made it the highest in the nation.[30][31]

Whitmer at a naturalization ceremony in November 2019 at Detroit

Whitmer's first budget earmarked several billions of dollars for investment in infrastructure.[32][33][34] In 2019, she struggled with the Republican-controlled legislature to pass a budget and made several concessions.[32]

The gubernatorial election and national conversation during Whitmer's time in office focused largely on healthcare. During the election, she was the only Democratic candidate not to support a single-payer healthcare system.[35] As governor, she has focused on women's healthcare and Medicaid expansion.[32]

In May 2020, the Edenville Dam gave way after awaiting an overdue report on its safety standards. Whitmer directed the EGLE to form an investigation that "state Republicans, flooding victim advocates and dam safety experts" criticized, concerned that the state's environmental agency would essentially be investigating itself.[36] Guidelines from the Association of State Dam Safety Officials advocate independent investigators. An inquiry launched by the U.S. House of Representatives later gave the EGLE and FERC a two-week deadline for answers.[37]

Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.[38] This order was met with broad public approval; a March poll found that 69% of Michigan residents supported Whitmer's actions, including 61% of self-identified Republicans.[39]

After Whitmer extended the order and tightened restrictions in April,[40][41] an eight-hour protest against the restrictions organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and co-hosted by the Michigan Freedom Fund[42][43] attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 protesters to the Michigan State Capitol.[44][45][46] New York Times columnist Charlie Warzel described the demonstration as "twisted, paranoid and racialized", pushed by conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones.[47] Jeanine Pirro of Fox News praised the protesters, saying, "God bless them, it’s going to happen all over the country".[48] At the time of the protest, more than 1,900 people in Michigan had died after contracting the virus.[40] On April 29, a Michigan judge upheld the order against legal challenge, ruling that "Our fellow residents have an interest to remain unharmed by a highly communicable and deadly virus. And since the state entered the Union in 1837, it has had the broad power to act for the public health of the entire state when faced with a public crisis.”[49]

Polling by the Detroit Regional Chamber in mid-April found that 57% of Michigan residents approved of Whitmer's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including the extension.[50][51][52][53] The family of the first child to die of coronavirus in Michigan expressed support for Whitmer's decision to extend the stay-at-home order on the grounds that social distancing would save lives. LaVondria Herbert, the child's mother, said, "I want to say thank you to the governor for making people go home."[54]

On October 2, 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 4–3 that "a state law allowing the governor to declare emergencies and keep them in place without legislative input—the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act—is unconstitutional" and unanimously ruled that the 1976 Emergency Management Act "did not give Whitmer the power, after April 30, to issue or renew any executive orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic after 28 days without Legislative approval".[55]

Also on October 2, a petition containing 539,384 signatures was submitted seeking to repeal the 1945 EPGA law allowing Whitmer emergency powers during the pandemic.[56]

In February 2020, Whitmer was selected to deliver the Democratic response to Donald Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address. Michigan was considered a swing state in the 2020 presidential election, and it was speculated that Democrats hoped selecting Whitmer would bolster their chance of winning the state.[32][57][58]

In early March, days before the 2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary, Whitmer endorsed Joe Biden, and joined his campaign as a national co-chair.[59]

In 2020, amid her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as after tweets in which Trump attacked her and called her "that woman from Michigan", Whitmer gained a greater national profile.[60][61][62] Her response to the pandemic was the subject of the cover story of Newsweek's May 1, 2020, edition.[63] Also in May, Cecily Strong impersonated Whitmer on an episode of Saturday Night Live.[64]

Biden and his team vetted Whitmer as a potential running mate during their 2020 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, with Biden confirming she was on his shortlist in March.[65] Michigan's status as a key swing state was seen as boosting her prospects of being selected.[66] The New York Times reported that she was one of four finalists for the position, along with Kamala Harris, Susan Rice, and Elizabeth Warren.[67] Harris was ultimately selected.[68] By some reporting, Whitmer removed herself from consideration, urging Biden to choose a black woman instead.[69] While Whitmer was not selected, her consideration for the position further elevated her national stature.[65]

Whitmer delivered a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention that praised Biden's work in rescuing the Michigan auto industry and criticized Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.[70]

Whitmer was seen as having strong prospects of being offered a position in Biden's cabinet. On January 9, 2021, she said she was not interested in leaving her role as governor.[69]

In early January 2021, then-President-elect Biden nominated Whitmer to serve as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.[71]

On October 8, 2020, a federal indictment against six men associated with the Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan-based militia group, was unsealed. The indictment charges the men with plotting to kidnap Whitmer and violently overthrow Michigan's government.[72] The FBI became aware of the scheme in early 2020 after communications among the far-right group were discovered, and via an undercover agent who met with more than a dozen individuals at a meeting in Dublin, Ohio.[73] Another seven men were charged with state crimes in relation to the plot.[74] Facebook is cooperating with the investigation, since the federal criminal complaint detailed how the group used a private Facebook group to discuss the alleged plot.[75]

In the wake of the unsealed indictment, Whitmer, in a livestream, thanked the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation, called the plotters "sick and depraved men", and cast blame on Trump for refusing to explicitly condemn far-right groups and for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.[76][77][78]

Whitmer has said she would like to phase in full-day Universal Pre-K for 4-year-olds in Michigan. She would eliminate Michigan's current 3rd grade "read-or-flunk" policy, which she has said penalizes students the education system has failed, and would instead work to improve their reading skills. She proposes that all high school students be offered two years of debt-free higher education, either college or post-secondary training for skilled trades.[79]

Whitmer has said she would fight Republican efforts to take away protections for patients with preexisting conditions. In the State Senate, she successfully worked to expand Medicaid coverage in the state. She has spoken against single-payer healthcare as unrealistic and said she would work to lower the cost of prescription drugs and would get rid of Schuette's drug immunity law, which she believes protects drug companies from legal trouble if their drugs harm or kill people.[80]

In March 2019 Whitmer proposed increasing the gasoline tax by 45 cents per gallon to fund road repairs.[81] It was not enacted.