Whitmer's turn in coronavirus spotlight brings national attention to Michigan

When Liz Gereghty gets a call from her sister, it’s not the name Gretchen or Big Sis that pops up on the caller ID on her cellphone.

Instead, Gereghty has changed her contact profile to show that it’s “The Woman from Michigan” calling. It’s a tribute to her sister — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — and the task and challenges she’s encountered during a global pandemic that has hit Michigan particularly hard.

Whitmer has been tagged with a lot of nicknames over the years — G Dubya, G-Dog which came from Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich’s 5-year-old son Jacob, and some more derisive terms like Sh*#mer and butthole which prompted deep belly laughs as she read the mean tweets during her campaign for governor in 2018.

But “The Woman from Michigan” moniker and its companion “Gretchen Half-Whitmer” from President Donald Trump, who was annoyed with her criticism of the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, are the ones that have become a rallying cry for both supporters and critics of Gretchen Esther Whitmer, Michigan’s 49th governor.

It’s hard to turn on the TV these days without seeing Whitmer. She has become ubiquitous on cable and network news shows from MSNBC to Fox News to Comedy Central. She’s on podcasts and tele-town halls, Zoom chats and conference calls with doctors, nurses, business leaders and constituents, and she has given news conference updates multiple times a week that are livestreamed across the airwaves.

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She has gone from Democratic governor trying to work with a mostly recalcitrant Republican Legislature that has blocked her from getting her signature campaign promise of “fixing the damn roads” done, to a thorn in Trump’s side, a target of conservative protests and a member of an exclusive club -— the short list for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate.

A bipartisan household

For many who know her, it seems that Whitmer, 48, was born for this moment in the national spotlight. Both her parents were public servants, one working for a Republican, the other a Democrat. Her mother, Sherry Whitmer, was a top attorney working for former Democratic attorneys general Frank Kelley and Jennifer Granholm. Her father, Richard Whitmer, was the director of the Department of Commerce under former Republican Gov. William Milliken and was later the president of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, the largest health insurance company in the state.

The oldest of three children in the bipartisan family, Whitmer got the best of both parents, Gereghty said.

“There is a lot of what I’m seeing from her right now that brings my mom to mind, really being able to multitask and give full attention to each different piece of her life,” she said. “One thing we learned from my mom is that she could do anything and really rise to the occasion. She was the kind of person who would look at a problem and figure out the best way to approach it. I see a lot of that in Gretchen now.”

Whitmer said she thinks she inherited her dad’s “cool as a cucumber” demeanor that has been beneficial in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic that had infected more than 36,000 people and killed more than 3,000 people in Michigan as of Friday.

“Being raised in a household where it was always, ‘Get the facts, understand what is happening, ask questions, be thoughtful, don't react, don't do something off-the-cuff and really take the time to make sure that you're being smart and moving quickly’ … That's something that I learned in the household in which I was raised,” she said in a Zoom interview with Free Press Thursday.

Her dual roles in 2002 as a new mom to the first of two daughters and caretaker and health advocate for her mother after she was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor, coupled with serving in her first term in the Michigan Legislature, was perhaps the best training she could get for the job she’s doing now.

“When I was starting my family, starting a new job, and overseeing the care of my mom at the end of her life and my daughter at the beginning of hers, there were lots of stressors that came along with it,” she said. “Someone said to me after that period of time that they didn't realize all of the things that were going on. I just didn't talk about it. When I was at work in the Legislature, I was just doing it. I just made it work. I took the next steps ahead of me without becoming overwhelmed by the enormity and the sadness of it all. It helped me keep perspective in a very tough time. And I think that is something that helps me now.” 

Along the way, she developed both a thick skin and an innate sense of the limits of her political power as she served in the minority during her time in the state House of Representatives and Senate.

“The biggest thing people don’t understand about Gretchen is just how cool she is under pressure,” said former state Rep. Brandon Dillon of Grand Rapids, who also was a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party. “She’s got some really strong innate political communication skills. And in many ways, that's an art form; you have to know when you can push and pull, all while delivering a message that gets heard.”

She found a way to work with Republicans because she didn’t have a choice as the leader of a tiny Democratic caucus in the Senate (Republicans had a 26-12 supermajority in 2014) that had to claw its way to gain any ground.

She counts the expansion of Medicaid to 600,000 low-income Michiganders as a signature achievement as the Senate Minority Leader, along with a resolution of a long-festering problem of getting streetlights working in Detroit.

Whitmer didn’t hold back on her other, less successful battles, like right-to-work and anti-abortion measures, and came to be known as a bit of a verbal bomb thrower when she needed to be.

“Being president of the Senate at the time, Gretchen helped me be a better parliamentarian. She would embarrass me if I wasn’t prepared,” said Brian Calley, a Portland Republican who, as Lieutenant Governor at the time, presided over the state Senate. “It started out as an adversarial relationship, but it became very respectful over the years.”

And he gained some insight into what has become a signature trademark for Whitmer.

“She definitely knows how to get a headline, and the way to word something to make it memorable,” he said. “She always had a quick and witty response to the sorts of things that will be picked up and used in a headline.”

It’s a trait that has served her well in recent months.

Victories and defeats

Whitmer’s stature as a relatively fresh political face who handily won the governor’s race in 2018 after Trump won the state in 2016, put her on the national Democratic radar, even though her first year as governor had many embarrassing defeats and partisan fights.

Her plan to impose a 45-cent-a-gallon tax on gas to raise the revenue to fix the crumbling roads and bridges in Michigan never got off the ground and was publicly derided by Republicans and the business community. It also was dismissed as unrealistic by Democrats.

Her attempt to take control of the state budget with nearly $1 billion in vetoes to the spending plan passed by the GOP-led Legislature in an attempt to get Republicans back to the negotiating table almost ended with a state government shutdown. And her first-in-the-nation ban on flavored vapes was extinguished by the courts.

One Republican, state Sen. Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, called her and the Democrats “batshit crazy” in an unguarded moment talking with college students. And other GOP members of the Legislature started referring to her as an elected official who was acting more like a queen or an emperor.

And yet, Whitmer is from the crucial battleground state of Michigan that was key to Trump’s 10,704-vote margin of victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton and provided the electoral votes he needed to win the White House in 2016. The state is seen as an essential part of the path to victory for both Trump and Biden this year.

Kevin Madden, a Washington, D.C. public affairs executive who worked as an adviser on both of Mitt Romney’s campaigns for president and has been a frequent pundit on cable news, said Whitmer’s rise nationally isn’t too surprising. In every presidential cycle, political advisers look around the landscape to see who may be an asset to a campaign or party.

“Anytime you’re a governor in a big battleground state, you’re going to be viewed as potential national political material,” he said.

That played a key role, no doubt, in Whitmer being selected to give the Democratic response to Trump’s State of the Union address in February. And as Michigan became a national focus again in March — first because of the state’s primary on March 10 and then as coronavirus cases spiked in the state — Whitmer’s star continued to rise.

And she seemed ready for the test. CNN’s Chris Cillizza, who each week has been ranking the 10 most important people in the country responding to the pandemic, has routinely had Whitmer in the top five.

That has already turned Whitmer into a better-known figure, making it almost certain that — regardless of whether she is a vice presidential nominee or not — she will continue to be someone who has a national profile.

“The scrutiny in the national spotlight is very different,” said Madden. “What matters is that national strategists and the national media have responded very favorably. She has a bigger profile.”

She has capitalized on that profile, being critical of Trump and his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in almost daily appearances on national news programs. That critique led to Trump telling Vice President Mike Pence to not call or talk to “That Woman from Michigan,” and coining the "Half-Whitmer" nickname.

But Whitmer is not one to back down. She kept up the pleas for a cohesive national strategy to fight COVID-19, and prompted a run on a T-shirt that she wore on Comedy Central’s "Daily Show" that proclaimed “That Woman From Michigan.”

Whitmer said she didn’t ask to be thrust into the national spotlight, although she hired former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s press person to help handle the crush of national media that want to tell her story.

“When the president put me into the national spotlight in an unfavorable way, I was not happy. I was very worried about it. I didn't sleep because I was worried that it would hurt our ability to get what we need here in Michigan,” she said. “When Joe Biden put me in the national spotlight by making some favorable comments, I wasn't looking for that. When I do national television … every time, it’s an opportunity to educate people about how serious COVID-19 is and why it's important to stay home.”

That national attention also puts the governor in a more difficult spot in some ways, Madden said. Appearing on TV and cable news regularly and becoming a national figure inevitably means being characterized in a partisan fashion. That, Madden said, can result in downward pressure on her job approval ratings at home among some who otherwise might have seen her positively as her national star rises.

He said it can be “a very difficult balancing act. … The more of a partisan figure she’s become, the tougher it’s gotten for her.”

Her job approval, though, has only risen during the coronavirus pandemic. A poll of 600 Michiganders done by the Glengariff Group by the Detroit Regional Chamber earlier this month had her approval rating at 57%, while the approval rating for Trump was only at 40%. And a Fox News poll of 801 Michigan voters released Wednesday had Whitmer’s approval at 63% and Trump’s approval rating at 47%.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political handicapping site, said it’s easy enough to see Whitmer’s rise in how Republican operatives are suddenly attacking her; in some cases repeating false claims like those suggesting that her Stay Home, Stay Safe executive order stops people from buying child car seats.

“You don’t get attacked like she’s been attacked unless the other party sees you as a big threat,” Sabato said. “She’s had a meteoric rise. She’s a new governor, but she comes across beautifully on TV. For people who are not clued into the ins and outs of Michigan politics, she presents a good image for the state.”

Sabato said while people in the rest of the country may not have a clue as to the coronavirus situation in Michigan, they do see snippets of Whitmer on the news. And when they do, he said, they see someone who appears at ease and able to explain herself. “She looks good, she sounds good,” said Sabato. “She comes across as reasonable and also decisive.”

“People form these impressions and they really do inform the long-term views of public officials,” he added. “Her problem is the Republican communications gurus have gone to work to damage that image. I’m sure they’ve at least partially succeeded.”

A place on the short list

As to whether she’s a likely vice presidential nominee for Joe Biden, that’s a decision almost assuredly months down the road. It’s rare in recent election cycles for such a decision to be made or announced until closer to the party’s convention — which has been pushed back this year because of the pandemic to the week of Aug. 17 in Milwaukee, and it could be changed to become a virtual convention rather than an in-person event.

It’s also certain that Whitmer will become a bigger part of that conversation, even though, as governor of Michigan, it is likely she would have been talked about as a possible nominee in any event. Ultimately, however, being a governor in a key state may have less to do with getting picked than other qualities.

Madden said a potential vice presidential nominee’s personal relationship with the presidential nominee, as well as his or her gender and ideology may play a key role. So may his or her level of experience, and whether he or she is more of an attacking surrogate than the presidential nominee or a stabilizing force.

At present, US-Bookies.com, which aggregates information from online bookmakers, lists Whitmer’s chances of being the Democratic vice presidential nominee on the United Kingdom’s betting market — where betting on politics is legal and regulated — as 15-2, fourth behind U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

For his part, Biden has already said Whitmer’s on his list of possibilities. When asked by MSNBC’s Brian Williams at the end of March whether Whitmer’s response to coronavirus had expanded Biden’s list of candidates, the former VP said, “She hasn’t lengthened the list. She made the list in my mind two months ago.”

He also said, however, that he expects the list to be between six and 10 women long — he has already committed to picking a woman — and it also is expected to include former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, among others.

And while selecting Whitmer, who is white, may not overtly appear to help the Democratic ticket with blacks and Hispanics — especially the way it might were Biden to select Harris, Abrams or Cortez Masto — she does have one asset working in her favor in that regard: Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who is African American and beginning to get some national attention himself.

Were Whitmer to become vice president, Gilchrist would become Michigan’s first black governor, which would be no small matter in a state where the largest city, Detroit, is 85% black.

“That’s the kind of fact that spreads rapidly in the political community and filters out,” said Sabato. “I’ve noticed him. … I don’t think it’s an accident. I think they’re pushing him out there to get that message out there.”

People who know her well don’t think she’ll be Biden’s choice. There are some handicaps she has to overcome. When she was running for governor, organized labor and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan actively looked for another candidate before settling on Whitmer because she had raised enough money and worked long enough for the job that no other mainstream Democrat got into the race.

She lacks foreign policy experience and is in the midst of dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, which would be difficult to leave to hit the presidential campaign trail.

“When she won the governor’s race, it was already a good Democratic year,” said pollster Ed Sarpolus, executive director of the Lansing-based Target Insyght political consulting firm. Former President Barack “Obama will do more to get voters out in Detroit than Gretchen will. And Biden has already got labor.

“She’s got no big national fundraising machine behind her like some of the others on the list,” he added. “So what is Biden going to get from her?”

With the spotlight, comes a target

And Republicans have already made clear that if Biden chooses Whitmer, they are ready to pounce.

Republicans have hit Whitmer on several fronts, especially on her stay-at-home order that has shuttered businesses and kept people in their homes for six weeks. The order prompted a noisy rally that attracted thousands to Lansing and snarled traffic around the Capitol on April 15. Republicans in the Legislature also scheduled an emergency special session on Friday to form an oversight committee to look into her handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The state Senate also approved bills along party lines to strip away some power from the governor's office, although Whitmer has said she will veto the bills.

The GOP also is saying she delayed asking the Trump administration for a disaster declaration and taken other actions which have potentially delayed or hurt the pandemic response in Michigan.

Chris Gustafson, a spokesman for the Trump Victory Committee, which is part of the president’s overall reelection effort, said Whitmer, “has placed political ambition before Michiganders. In her audition to be Joe Biden's VP, Whitmer has delayed relief to Michiganders, turned Michigan into a police state, and dismissed the concerns of business owners. Michigan needs leadership, not political opportunists."

Even after Whitmer loosened some of the restrictions on Friday, allowing some businesses to get back to work and dropping the prohibition on boating and golfing, Republicans said she hadn't acted quickly enough.

And they’ve taken aim at a contract awarded by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to a Democratic-connected firm to provide help in collecting health data to try and trace who might have come in contact with people who have tested positive for coronavirus. Whitmer canceled the contract when Republicans started raising concerns.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee and a Michigan resident, said that while Republicans “want every governor to be successful” she doesn’t believe Whitmer has done enough to assuage the worries of Michiganders stuck at home and out of work.

“I wish our governor would have a roundtable,” she said. “Talk to these people, find out why they’re worried. Of course, they (the protesters) should be following the guidelines. … But there’s a reason they are out there. Hear out the concerns that they have.”

McDaniel, who lives in Northville, also said that parts of the orders coming out of the governor’s office have been “very confusing.”

“You couldn’t buy a car seat … can’t buy seeds,” “she said, citing claims that had already been disproven. “It doesn’t make sense when the lottery is still open and you can go and get a lottery ticket.”

Kellyanne Conway, an adviser to President Donald Trump, made a similar remark on Monday to Fox News, saying: “Some of these governors have physically distanced from common sense. In Michigan, you can basically smoke your grass but you can’t cut your grass. This makes no sense to many people.”

Whitmer tries to wave off the persistent questions about the vice presidential rumors, saying Thursday that she is in the job that she wants and is too busy dealing with the state's coronavirus response to even think about future political aspirations.

“I worked for two years to earn the opportunity to have this job as governor of Michigan,” she said. “This is exactly where I want to be. Even on the hardest days — and there have been a lot of hard days — there's nowhere else I'd rather be.”

But she doesn’t take the final step and say she won’t accept the job if it’s offered, noting on a Washington Post podcast last week that Biden hasn't asked for the documentation that will be necessary to vet a vice presidential candidate.

"No" she responded with a chuckle. "Not yet."

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal. Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com or on Twitter @tsspangler