DETROIT — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is not interested in the number-two spot on the Democratic ballot this fall, reports say. That decision owes to Whitmer’s history and a calculation about how winnable the 2024 race is.
After President Biden withdrew from the race Sunday, a consensus formed that his vice president, Kamala Harris, would represent Democrats in November. Just as quickly, reports said Whitmer and Harris’ home-state governor, Gavin Newsom, had no interest in being her running mate.
Whitmer faced a similar situation in the 2014 Michigan governor’s race.
Whitmer was a state senator in 2012 when then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, signed a law that made Michigan a right-to-work state. Untethering autoworkers from the United Auto Workers and teachers from their unions made Snyder a hated figure among Democrats.
But when the 2014 race came around, none of the Democratic challengers was exciting. Finally, a former congressman, Mark Schauer, volunteered to run against the incumbent. Whitmer did not join Schauer on the ticket.
When I asked her about that choice, after a gubernatorial debate in Detroit, Whitmer said she believed in Schauer. In November, Schauer lost, and four years later in 2018, Whitmer won. At the top of the ticket.
Whitmer has never lost a race. Mario Morrow, a Detroit-based Democratic political consultant, said Whitmer is approaching the VP spot “strategically.”
“If she decides not to even be considered for the VP role, then she’s looking at this strategically,” Morrow told The Post. “What are the chances of a Democratic ticket with two women on it?”
Morrow added: “If she decides not to even pursue it, then she’s counting her hand.”
The latest on President Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race:
Michigan is a battleground state, Morrow said, but Democrats need a candidate that complements Harris.
“Having two women on the ticket doesn’t balance the ticket,” Morrow said. “We still live in a very racially and sexually polarized environment.”
If Harris won, she would likely run again in 2028.
Morrow said in that event, it’s likely Whitmer would be given a Cabinet positon, to be kept fresh and relevant.
Whitmer, a Biden campaign co-chair, has spent much of July on a book tour for her memoir, “True Gretch.”
On July 4, Biden called on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, not Whitmer, to speak at a fundraiser on Michigan’s west side. He’d been floated for months as a possible replacement for the president.
After Biden dropped out of the race, one of his campaign co-chairs, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, cried about it on national TV.
“Joe Biden is grounded in faith, his family, and our state,” Coons said on CBS News.
Then his eyes filled with tears, Coons said, “Excuse me,” coughed, apologized again, and gathered himself.
“This was a difficult decision and one that reflects the best of who Joe Biden is,” Coons said.
Whitmer, in releasing a statement, shed no tears.
“President Biden is a great public servant who knows better than anyone what it takes to defeat Donald Trump. His remarkable work to lower prescription drug costs, fix the damn roads, bring supply chains home, address climate change, and ensure America’s global leadership over decades will go down in history. My job in this election will remain the same: doing everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising families’ costs, banning abortion nationwide, and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan,” she tweeted.
What to know about President Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race:
Earlier in the weekend, when the Republican ticket appeared Saturday in Grand Rapids, Whitmer released a video. The rally was former President Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in their first appearance after the Republican National Convention.
When the candidate whose campaign she co-chairs bowed out of politics after 50 years, Whitmer released a statement.
After the announcement, Whitmer did not appear on the airwaves touting Biden’s legacy. Coons was given that job.
