Gov. Gretchen Whitmer‘s (D-MI) suggestion this week that she is unlikely to join the growing field of Democrats eyeing the White House in 2028 amounted to a striking acknowledgment from a politician who, not long ago, was viewed as one of her party’s brightest rising stars.Whitmer told FOX 2 Detroit that she would “not be one” of a “robust group of people running for president” in 2028, though she later tempered the comment by telling reporters, “Never say never.”The remarks come as Whitmer’s standing within the Democratic Party has faded from the height of her national prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she was considered a potential vice presidential pick and future presidential contender.
Political observers in Michigan say Whitmer’s fortunes changed after President Donald Trump’s return to office. Rather than positioning herself as one of the president’s loudest Democratic antagonists, Whitmer opted to work with the White House on issues affecting Michigan. The strategy has earned bipartisan praise at home, but left her increasingly outside the party’s national resistance movement.
“She hasn’t been doing political travel to the early primary states, or anything like that. She has not been engaging in the anti-Trump vitriol, at least not at a high-volume level,” Michigan Republican strategist Jamie Roe told the Washington Examiner.
