Whitmer’s smart play for Trump’s voters

“I’m that same woman from Michigan,” Governor Gretchen Whitmer told Fox 2 Detroit Tuesday night, when asked about her changing relationship with President Donald Trump. Yet for progressive Democratic voters, Whitmer’s willingness to appear – reluctantly in the Oval Office three weeks ago, less so Tuesday at the Air National Guard Base at Selfridge, where Trump invited her to speak at the lectern prominently bearing the seal of the President – is viewed as anathema.

Who’s right in this moment? Will Whitmer’s multiple appearances and plaudits for Trump become something she intensely regrets when the Democratic party’s presidential primaries begin apace? Or is the True Gretch author sly as a fox?

The proof of the latter is simple: Donald Trump won Michigan handily in 2024, by 80,000 votes – far more than his 11,000-vote squeaker in 2016. The state is trending rightward, to the point that Elissa Slotkin won by fewer than 20,000 votes in that same cycle in her bid to replace incumbent Debbie Stabenow (Slotkin, for her part, is calling on Democrats to ditch wokeness for patriotic toughness). There is definite concern among national Democrats about the candidacy of Republican John James to replace Whitmer, and the party brand has declined in Michigan to the point that longtime Democratic Detroit mayor Mike Duggan is running for governor as an Independent.

So who’s really going to be regretting these moves – aimed at achieving real policy goals – of making peace with Trump? It’s unlikely to be Whitmer. She’s canny enough to realize that the Trumpian agenda, so unpopular among national Democrats, is firmly aimed at Rust Belt voters who are the last people to be angry over the tariff and border policies he’s adopted. And Whitmer may be smart enough to understand that the path to the Democratic nomination may require a candidate with a demonstrated ability to appeal to more audiences than the people who go to conversations with Cecily Strong at the 92nd Street Y – though that helps, too. 

Last time around, Kamala Harris was the candidate of Hollywood, embraced by woke leftist celebrities of every kind, backed to the hilt with the dollars of the California elite. Gavin Newsom seems to be tracking for the same path in 2028. But his self-flagellating podcast with its token invitations to Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk isn’t going to win over a single Midwest voter. What will is when you get things done – and that’s a lot more likely to matter for Whitmer in 2028. It will be hated by the Trump = Hitler crowd, but she’s smart to realize they aren’t the path to victory. Winning back Rust Belt independents who went to Trump over Kamala is.