64 Facts About Gretchen Whitmer

Gretchen Esther Whitmer was born on August 23,1971 and is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019.

Gretchen Whitmer is a graduate of Forest Hills Central High School, Michigan State University, and the Michigan State University College of Law, which at the time was the Detroit College of Law.

Gretchen Whitmer ran unsuccessfully for the state House of Representatives in the 1990s before being elected in 2000.

Gretchen Whitmer was the Senate's first female Democratic leader from 2011 to 2015.

Gretchen Whitmer was elected governor in the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial election, defeating the Republican nominee, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.

Since January 2021, Gretchen Whitmer has served as one of the vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee.

Gretchen Whitmer was born on August 23,1971, in Lansing, Michigan, the eldest of three children of Sharon H "Sherry" Reisig and Richard Whitmer, who were both attorneys.

Gretchen Whitmer's father was head of the state department of commerce under Governor William Milliken, a Republican, and the president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan from 1988 to 2006.

Gretchen Whitmer's parents divorced when she was ten years old.

Gretchen Whitmer attended and graduated from Forest Hills Central High School near Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Gretchen Whitmer received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in communication and a Juris Doctor from Michigan State University in 1993 and 1998, respectively.

Gretchen Whitmer originally ran for the Michigan House of Representatives in the 1990s but was unsuccessful.

Gretchen Whitmer was reelected to the 69th House district in 2002 and 2004.

In March 2006, Gretchen Whitmer won a special election to the Michigan State Senate, replacing Virg Bernero, who had been elected mayor of Lansing in November 2005.

Gretchen Whitmer was elected to a full term in November, and reelected in 2010.

On May 11,2016, it was announced that the judges of Michigan's 30th Judicial Circuit Court had unanimously selected Gretchen Whitmer to serve the remaining six months of outgoing Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III's term, after he was arrested on March 14,2016, and charged with 11 counts of involvement with a prostitute and four counts of willful neglect of duty.

On June 21,2016, Gretchen Whitmer was administered the oath of office as prosecutor by Ingham County Circuit Court Chief Judge Janelle Lawless.

On July 22,2016, Gretchen Whitmer issued an 11-page report on whether Dunnings's alleged criminal activity had affected cases handled by the office.

On January 3,2017, Gretchen Whitmer announced she would run in the 2018 Michigan gubernatorial race.

Gretchen Whitmer won all 83 counties in the state in the Democratic primary.

In July 2018, Republican officials accused Gretchen Whitmer of supporting the movement to abolish ICE, a claim that Gretchen Whitmer disputed.

Gretchen Whitmer said that, if elected, she would focus on improving Michigan's fundamentals, such as schools, roads, and water systems.

Gretchen Whitmer was reelected to a second term in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Tudor Dixon.

Gretchen Whitmer won by nearly 11 points, a larger margin than many analysts and election watchers predicted, with polling showing a tightening race in the weeks before election day in what was expected to be a tough midterm election for Democrats in battleground states like Michigan.

Gretchen Whitmer won 18 counties and expanded her margins in several vote-rich, bellwether areas of the state, including Oakland, Macomb, and Kent Counties.

Gretchen Whitmer describes herself as a progressive Democrat, who can work with state legislators from different political perspectives.

Gretchen Whitmer directed the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to form an investigation that "state Republicans, flooding victim advocates and dam safety experts" criticized, concerned that the state's environmental agency would essentially be investigating itself.

Gretchen Whitmer laid out her plans in her January 26,2023, State of The State address.

Gretchen Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

In March 2021, Gretchen Whitmer traveled to Florida for three days to visit her ailing father.

The trip was controversial, in part because Gretchen Whitmer did not self-quarantine on her return, despite voluntary guidelines from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services recommending self-quarantine for a full seven days after travel; Gretchen Whitmer's staff said she was regularly tested for COVID-19.

In May 2021, Gretchen Whitmer was photographed with a large group of unmasked people, with no social distancing, in a bar in East Lansing.

In February 2020, Gretchen Whitmer was selected to deliver the Democratic response to the State of the Union address by then President Donald Trump.

Michigan was considered a swing state in the 2020 United States presidential election, and it was speculated that Democrats hoped selecting Gretchen Whitmer would bolster their chance of winning the state.

In early March, days before the 2020 Michigan Democratic presidential primary, Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Joe Biden, and joined his campaign as a national co-chair.

In 2020, amid her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as after tweets in which Trump attacked her and called her "that woman from Michigan", Gretchen Whitmer gained a greater national profile.

Gretchen Whitmer was vetted by Biden's team as a potential running mate during the 2020 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection; Biden confirmed she was on his shortlist in March.

Gretchen Whitmer delivered a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention that praised Biden's work in rescuing the Michigan auto industry and criticized Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gretchen Whitmer was seen as having strong prospects of being offered a position in Biden's cabinet.

Gretchen Whitmer called the plotters "sick and depraved men" and blamed Trump for refusing to explicitly condemn far-right groups and for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

In September 2021, Whitmer began working with the state legislature to repeal a 90-year-old law that banned abortion in Michigan, so as to preserve abortion rights in the state in case Roe v Wade was overturned.

In 2018, as a candidate for governor, Gretchen Whitmer spoke at Hash Bash to endorse Proposal 1 to legalize recreational cannabis in Michigan.

In 2020, Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a bill that would have shifted elderly people with COVID-19 out of nursing homes and into entirely separate facilities.

Gretchen Whitmer has said she would like to phase in full-day universal pre-k for 4-year-olds in Michigan.

Gretchen Whitmer eliminated Michigan's third-grade "read-or-flunk" policy, which she says penalizes students the education system has failed; she wants to work to improve their reading skills.

Gretchen Whitmer proposes that all high school students be offered two years of debt-free higher education, either college or post-secondary training for skilled trades.

In 2020, Gretchen Whitmer launched the Futures for Frontliners program, providing tuition-free access to an associate's degree or professional certification program for Michiganders who served as essential workers during the in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gretchen Whitmer signed bipartisan legislation in 2022 establishing the Michigan Achievement Scholarship and providing $560 million to fund it.

Gretchen Whitmer has ordered the closure of major oil pipelines in Michigan and supports renewable energy initiatives.

Gretchen Whitmer has been endorsed by the Sierra Club's Michigan Chapter.

Gretchen Whitmer is a proponent of expanding industry onto agricultural lands and natural areas throughout Michigan, most notably in supporting industrial "Megasites", such as the proposed Marshall Megasite or Michigan Megasite, which would use 1,600 acres of agricultural lands and natural area along the Kalamazoo River for industrial development.

On January 11,2021, Gretchen Whitmer called for a ban on all weapons inside the Michigan State Capitol in response to armed protestors in April 2020.

In 2019, Gretchen Whitmer joined 11 other governors in calling for stricter gun control laws in the form of "common sense gun legislation".

Gretchen Whitmer has said she would fight Republican efforts to take away protections for patients with preexisting conditions.

Gretchen Whitmer spoke against single-payer healthcare as unrealistic on a state level in 2018.

Gretchen Whitmer said she would work to lower the cost of prescription drugs and would get rid of Schuette's drug immunity law, which she believes protects drug companies from legal trouble if their drugs harm or kill people.

Gretchen Whitmer disapproved of Trump's plan to exclude illegal immigrants from the 2020 United States Census.

On June 7,2018, Gretchen Whitmer advocated for expanding the protections of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

Gretchen Whitmer has issued executive orders to prevent discrimination against members of the LGBT community.

In 2022, Gretchen Whitmer was endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign.

In March 2019, Gretchen Whitmer proposed increasing the gasoline tax by 45 cents per gallon to fund road repairs; it was not enacted.

On March 28,2020, Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order expanding access to mail-in voting.

In May 2021, Gretchen Whitmer was sharply criticized after being photographed without a mask at a Michigan restaurant, a violation of the state's COVID-19 mandate.

Gretchen Whitmer's sister, Liz Gretchen Whitmer Gereghty, is a Katonah-Lewisboro School Board trustee in Westchester County, New York.