Governor Whitmer cancels 2024 presidential election, but does not hide her ambitions with timely book launch

LANSING, Michigan – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is releasing her new memoir at a particularly tense time – both for herself and the Democratic Party.

Set to be released Tuesday amid the excitement surrounding President Joe Biden’s recent debate performance, “True Gretch” won’t do much to allay questions about her national ambitions. But in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of its release, Whitmer did what she could to quell such speculation, saying bluntly that she would not enter the election if Biden were to withdraw.

“This is more of a distraction than anything else,” Whitmer said. “I don’t like seeing my name in articles like this because I’m completely focused on governing and campaigning.”

In the book, Whitmer describes events that unfolded nationally throughout her career, including a clash with Donald Trump and a kidnapping plot targeting her and her family.

While Whitmer may not be happy about the attention, her rapid rise over the course of two decades – from law graduate to governor of Michigan – has made her a prominent figure within the Democratic Party.

Her status was cemented in 2022 by a decisive re-election and her party’s success in flipping both houses of the state legislature, giving Democrats full control for the first time in nearly four decades.

“I spent the first quarter of this century watching our politics move in an uncomfortable direction of incivility and strife,” Whitmer says in the opening pages of her book, then adds, “That’s why I decided to write this book: to shed some light on a damn dark time.”

Whitmer first attracted national attention in 2013 when she was minority leader in the Michigan Senate. Before a vote on an anti-abortion law, Whitmer deviated from her prepared speech and said she had been raped while in college.

“The thought of opening up and telling this room full of mostly men that I had been attacked as a young woman was horrifying,” she says in the book.

More than ten years after the law was passed, Whitmer, as governor, signed a bill repealing it—the same year Michigan voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution.

In her role as co-chair of the Biden campaign, Whitmer has pushed the issue of abortion access, saying that Biden is on the “right side” of the abortion fight, despite his lackluster performance in the recent debate over the issue of reproductive rights.

“I think everyone acknowledged that it wasn’t his best 90 minutes,” she said in an interview. “But I’ve known this man for a long time and he’s worked for the public for decades and given people money.”

Whitmer has said at campaign rallies that Trump might restrict reproductive rights if elected to the Oval Office. During her first term as governor, she clashed with the then-president over the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s reference to Whitmer during a White House press conference became known as “that woman from Michigan.”

Whitmer accuses the former president of stoking the political hatred that underpinned the plan to kidnap and assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020. In her book, Whitmer criticizes reports that speak of a “kidnapping plot” and says it was clear that the plan was aimed at her assassination.

Whitmer says her daughters have not returned to the private residence monitored by the conspirators and her husband has closed his dental practice due to threats.

“Nearly three years later, there is no doubt that the apparent kidnapping and murder conspiracy has changed me,” she writes.

Five of the 14 defendants were acquitted in state or federal courts. Whitmer says in her book that she wants to meet with a handful of those who pleaded guilty in the name of understanding the charges, “to ask the questions and really hear the answers.”

Whitmer is one of 12 female governors and arguably the most well-known. She writes openly about how gender-based violence, threats and rhetoric have affected her career and personal life. She recounts difficult moments when she told her two daughters about the sexual harassment and, years later, the plot to murder her.

Whitmer said it was sometimes difficult to return to those events while writing the book.

“I think I can deal with it by actually talking about it,” she said.

She writes about being a partier before law school (she once threw up on her high school principal after a drink), and her relationship with her own body. People from voters to reporters discussed her appearance and clothing more than her political views, she says in the book.

She is consistently unapologetic, except when expressing regret for dining with friends at a dive bar despite pandemic restrictions. Whitmer points out that another Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom of California, also faced criticism for going to a three-Michelin-starred restaurant during the pandemic.

Newsom’s name was floated last week alongside Whitmer’s as a possible replacement for Biden.

Politico Magazine reported on July 1 that “someone close to a possible Whitmer rival for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination” said Whitmer had declared after the debate that Michigan was no longer winnable for Biden.

Whitmer dismissed the report early last week.

“I find it frustrating that there are news outlets that publish something that an employee of a potential future opponent would have said,” Whitmer said.

Whitmer ends her memoir with the “man in the arena” quote from 26th President Theodore Roosevelt and a colorful reference to her own penchant for wearing pink.

“The ‘man’ could be a woman. And she could just be wearing fuchsia,” Whitmer concludes.

Whitmer said in the interview that she shares this quote with her staff and that it is about “doing the difficult but right thing.”

“But it’s a bit outdated,” she said, laughing.

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Volmert reported from Indianapolis.