(NewsNation) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been a rising star in the Democratic Party for years.
Now, as some are floating names to replace current President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential election following a heavily criticized performance at the first debate, Whitmer has often come up.
However, the Michigan governor has nixed this possibility, saying she stands behind Biden as the party’s candidate.
“I am proud to support Joe Biden as our nominee and I am behind him 100 percent in the fight to defeat Donald Trump,” she said in her statement. “Not only do I believe Joe can win Michigan, I know he can because he’s got the receipts: he’s lowered health care costs, brought back manufacturing jobs, and is committed to restoring the reproductive freedom women lost under Donald Trump.”
Who is Gretchen Whitmer?
According to her website, Whitmer is a “lifelong Michigander” who signed over 1,250 bills during her two terms as governor.
After graduating from Michigan State University and attending its law college, Whitmer entered private practice before being elected to the House of Representatives in 2000. Six years later, she became a state senator and eventually the Democratic leader.
In 2018, she announced a run for governor that ended up being successful, with Whitmer winning all 83 counties in the primary and 53% of the vote over Republican Bill Schuette in the general election. NewsNation partner The Hill writes that her slogan was “Fix the Damn Roads,” putting a focus on the state’s infrastructure. After being governor for only little over a year, Whitmer gave the 2020 Democratic response to the State of the Union.
Then, in 2022, Whitmer won a second term over GOP candidate Tudor Dixon. The Hill reported that 2022 election led to a Democratic majority in Michigan’s House and Senate, making it the first time in decades that the party had a “trifecta” of power in the state.
Gretchen Whitmer’s political views
Speaking to The New York Times in 2020, Whitmer described herself as a progressive Democrat.
Abortion
A staunch supporter of reproductive rights, Whitmer signed Proposal 3, which repealed the state’s 1931 law banning abortion without any exceptions and codified the right to the procedure in Michigan’s constitution.
While senate minority leader, Whitmer gained national attention after making a speech in front of her colleagues denouncing a law that would have made people wanting an abortion buy additional insurance. During her remarks, The Huffington Post reported, Whitmer held back tears as she talked about being raped in college.
Environment
Whitmer, as governor, ordered two major oil pipelines that ran through the Straits of Mackinac to close, earning her the endorsement of the Sierra Club. She also created the first public advocate position for clean water and environmental justice in Michigan’s state government.
Guns
Following the February 2021 shooting at Oxford High School near Detroit, Whitmer approved a package of gun violence prevention bills, creating universal background checks for all firearms and mandating safe storage requirements around children, according to CNN.
Legislation allowing medical professionals, family members, guardians, current or former dating partners and police to petition a judge to take away an at-risk individual’s firearms was signed by Whitmer in 2023 and went into effect in February 2024, the Detroit Free Press wrote.
Last year, Whitmer signed bills banning those convicted of domestic violence from buying, owning or transporting firearms for eight years after sentencing. Building on that, an executive order she signed this year establishes a Michigan Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.
Immigration
The Detroit Free Press quoted Whitmer in April of this year as saying that federal border policy reform is needed, but it must acknowledge the economic impact generated by immigrants.
“I know that we’ve got to reform immigration in this country. There is no question about that,” she said. “And it’s important that we do it in a responsible way because our economy relies on immigration. That is the great strength of the history of our state and our country. And yet, the system that we now have is not working.”
According to the article, Whitmer also said that those entering the United States unlawfully should not receive state benefits.
Back in 2019, in her first term as governor, Whitmer canceled the sale of a former state prison for the construction of a $35 million immigration detention center. The Detroit Free Press wrote at the time this was because the private detention center operator could not guarantee that the facility wouldn’t be used to detain adults separated from their children.
Recent efforts to address the border by Biden have been applauded by Whitmer, such as an executive action he took shutting down asylum requests after daily crossings hit a certain limit. According to her office, Whitmer is the first Michigan governor to send National Guard personnel to assist officials along the southern border, and approved requests for their support from both Trump and Biden’s administrations. Past statements she’s made, though, criticized what she called Trump’s “hateful, discriminatory rhetoric” when it came to certain immigration issues.
Plot to Kidnap Whitmer
During the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Michigan residents protested Whitmer’s stay-at-home order, according to NPR, with one demonstration lasting for nearly seven hours.
Then-President Trump cheered on these protestors, at one point tweeting “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”
NPR wrote that polls found people largely approved of Whitmer’s handling of the coronavirus, and Michigan went from the state with the third-largest number of COVID cases to the bottom third in October 2020. However, conservative critics took issue with Whitmer’s mandates, specifically her decision to extend a state of emergency without approval from the legislature.
FBI investigators in October 2020 announced that 13 men were arrested in connection with a plan to kidnap the governor that involved months of planning and even training exercises.
Six men were charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap the governor in reaction to what they viewed as her “uncontrolled power,” according to a federal complaint. Another seven were charged under the state’s anti-terrorism laws for allegedly targeting police and the state Capitol.
Prosecutors said the men, angry over COVID-19 restrictions, were aiming to kidnap Whitmer at her family’s Northern Michigan vacation home and take her to Wisconsin for a “trial.”
Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., who authorities said were the leaders in this plot, were convicted at a second trial after a jury at the first trial couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. Fox was sentenced to 16 years in prison, while Croft got almost 20 years of prison and five years of supervised release.
Whitmer’s Personal Life
Whitmer is married to Dr. Marc Mallory, a retired dentist. She has two daughters, three stepsons and two dogs. Rapper GMac Cash wrote a song about her called “Big Gretch.”
Simon & Schuster announced in April it is publishing her memoir. Called “True Gretch: What I’ve Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between,” the book is advertised as “an unconventionally honest, personal and funny account” of Whitmer’s life and career that’s “full of insights that guided her through a global pandemic, showdowns with high-profile bullies, and even a kidnapping and assassination plot.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
