Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: President Biden 'can win Michigan'

LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday sought to reinforce her support of President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee following his stumbles in last week's debate against Republican Donald Trump, saying she "100%" believes Biden can carry Michigan in November.

Whitmer, who's considered a rising star among Democrats and who serves as a co-chair of Biden's reelection campaign, issued a statement after the national news outlet Politico suggested she possibly had said Michigan "was no longer winnable for Biden" after he made a number of missteps in the televised debate against Trump.

A Whitmer aide, on the condition of not being identified, said the comment, which was sourced by Politico to "someone close to a potential 2028 Whitmer rival," was false. Likewise, on the social media platform X, Whitmer added that anyone who claims she "would say that we can’t win Michigan is full of s---."

"I am proud to support Joe Biden as our nominee and I am behind him 100% in the fight to defeat Donald Trump," Whitmer said in a Monday statement. "Not only do I believe Joe can win Michigan, I know he can because he’s got the receipts: he’s lowered health care costs, brought back manufacturing jobs and is committed to restoring the reproductive freedom women lost under Donald Trump."

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said she spoke to Whitmer about her Friday call with Biden campaign chairwoman Jen O'Malley Dillon and reiterated that the governor never said Michigan was “unwinnable.”

“We know what needs to be done to win Michigan,” Dingell said. “She's out there doing everything she can. She's working her a— off.”

Dingell also blasted the Whitmer rival who tried to spin Whitmer’s conversation with Dillon in an effort to “knife” the second-term Michigan governor. “Women don't like people that go after each other,” Dingell said.

Biden's lackluster performance at his first debate against Trump of the 2024 campaign has spurred some political pundits and The New York Times editorial board to urge Biden, who's 81 years old, to step aside. They've floated Whitmer and others, including Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, as potential replacements for Biden if the nomination were somehow put up for grabs at the party's convention in August.

Republicans in Michigan trumpeted the comment that was attributed to Whitmer by someone in Politico on Monday.

"Michiganders have been feeling the effects of Biden’s failed presidency for years now, evident by the looming threat of his electric vehicle agenda and the harsh reality that paychecks don’t stretch the same way they did under President Trump," said Victoria LaCivita, the Trump campaign's spokeswoman in Michigan.

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