Who is Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan?

(NewsNation) – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been a rising star in the Democratic Party for years.

Now that some candidates to succeed incumbent President Joe Biden are pushing for the Democratic nomination in the 2024 presidential election after her performance in the first debate was heavily criticized, Whitmer is often in the conversation.

However, the governor of Michigan has ruled out this possibility and stated that she supports Biden as her party’s candidate.

“I am proud to endorse Joe Biden as our nominee, and I stand 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 has the revenue: He has reduced 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 “forever Michigander” who signed over 1,250 bills during her two terms as governor.

After graduating from Michigan State University and attending law school there, Whitmer worked as a private attorney before being elected to the House of Representatives in 2000. Six years later, she became a state senator and eventually chair of the Democratic Party.

In 2018, she announced her candidacy for governor, which she ultimately succeeded in doing: Whitmer won all 83 counties in the primary and won 53% of the vote in the general election against Republican Bill Schuette. NewsNation partner The Hill writes that her slogan was “Fix the Damn Roads,” emphasizing the state’s infrastructure. After serving as governor for just over a year, Whitmer delivered the Democratic response to the 2020 State of the Union address.

Then, in 2022, Whitmer won a second term against GOP candidate Tudor Dixon. The Hill reported that the 2022 election resulted in a Democratic majority in the Michigan House and Senate, making it the first time in decades that the party had a “three-way bet” on power in the state.

Gretchen Whitmer’s political views

In a 2020 interview with the New York Times, Whitmer described herself as a progressive Democrat.

abortion

Whitmer is a staunch advocate of reproductive rights and signed House Bill 3, which repealed the 1931 state law that banned abortion without exceptions and enshrined the right to this procedure in the Michigan Constitution.

As Senate Minority Leader, Whitmer garnered national attention after she gave a speech to her colleagues denouncing a bill that would have required people seeking abortions to purchase additional insurance. During her speech, the Huffington Post reported, Whitmer held back tears as she spoke about her rape in college.

Environment

As governor, Whitmer ordered the closure of two major oil pipelines that ran through the Straits of Mackinac, garnering the support of the Sierra Club, and created the first public advocate position for clean water and environmental justice in Michigan state government.

weapons

Following the February 2021 shooting at Oxford High School near Detroit, Whitmer passed a package of gun violence prevention laws, according to CNN. These include universal background checks for all firearms and require the safe storage of firearms near children.

A law allowing healthcare professionals, family members, guardians, current or former domestic partners and police to petition a judge to seize a vulnerable person’s firearms was signed by Whitmer in 2023 and would take effect in February 2024, the Detroit Free Press wrote.

Last year, Whitmer signed legislation prohibiting people convicted of domestic violence from purchasing, possessing or transporting firearms for eight years after the conviction. This year, an executive order she signed created a Michigan Gun Violence Prevention Task Force.

immigration

The Detroit Free Press quoted Whitmer in April of this year as saying that reform of federal border policy is necessary, but that it must take into account the economic impact of immigrants.

“I know we need to reform immigration in this country. There’s no doubt about that,” she said. “And it’s important that we do it responsibly because our economy depends on immigration. That’s the great strength of our state and our country. And yet the system we have now isn’t working.”

According to the article, Whitmer also said that people who enter the United States illegally should not receive government benefits.

Back in 2019, during her first term as governor, Whitmer canceled the sale of a former state prison in favor of building a $35 million immigration detention center. The Detroit Free Press wrote at the time that this was because the prison’s private operator could not guarantee that the facility would not be used to detain adults separated from their children.

Biden’s recent efforts to improve the border have been welcomed by Whitmer, such as his executive action halting asylum claims after daily border crossings reached a certain threshold. According to her office, Whitmer is the first Michigan governor to send National Guard members to assist officials along the southern border, and she has approved requests for assistance from the Trump and Biden administrations. In previous comments, however, she has criticized Trump’s “hateful, discriminatory rhetoric” regarding certain immigration issues.

Plan to kidnap Whitmer

During the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Michigan residents protested Whitmer’s curfew, with one demonstration lasting nearly seven hours, according to NPR.

Then-President Trump encouraged these protesters and once tweeted: “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”

NPR wrote that polls have shown that people largely approve of Whitmer’s handling of the coronavirus, and Michigan slipped from the state with the third-highest number of COVID cases to the bottom third in October 2020. But conservative critics have faulted Whitmer’s mandates, particularly her decision to extend the state of emergency without legislative approval.

In October 2020, FBI investigators announced that 13 men had been arrested in connection with a plan to kidnap the governor that required months of planning and even training exercises.

Six men were charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap the governor in response to her “unchecked power,” according to a federal complaint. Another seven were charged under the state’s anti-terrorism laws for allegedly carrying out attacks on police and the state Capitol.

Prosecutors said the men were angry about COVID-19 restrictions and planned to kidnap Whitmer from her family’s vacation home in northern Michigan and take her to Wisconsin for a “trial.”

Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., who authorities say were the ringleaders of the plot, were convicted in a second trial after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the first trial. Fox was sentenced to 16 years in prison, while Croft received nearly 20 years in prison and five years probation.

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 that it would publish her memoir. The book is titled “True Gretch: What I Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between” and is billed as an “unconventionally honest, personal, and funny account” of Whitmer’s life and career that is “packed with insights that have guided her through a global pandemic, confrontations with prominent bullies, and even a kidnapping and murder plot.”