Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at a July 29 rally in support of Kamala Harris' presidential run along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at a high school in Ambler, Pennsylvania.
This season’s Bachelorette: Presidential Election Edition™ has come to a close, which means Vice President Kamala Harris has passed out a single rose to one hopeful 2024 presidential running mate.
The Democratic nominee for president selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her possible future vice president on Tuesday, ending weeks of speculation and shameless self-promotion from a list of very white, very male candidates.
Though it’s a relief to watch Harris and the Democratic Party avoid their historically Democratic ways and self-sabotage by way of a more moderate (and problematic) pick (i.e., Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro), I’m pouring one out for what could have been.
Yes, I will stan Walz as Harris’ running mate — the walking, talking antidote to what many voters would expect from a white male Midwestern politician. As governor, he has protected abortion access, guaranteed free breakfast and lunch for all public school students, legalized cannabis, strengthened union protections and much more.
But Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was right there ! And though Harris didn’t pick the obviously safe choice in Shapiro — what many will continue to argue was necessary in order to “balance” a Democratic ticket led by a biracial woman who embodies many progressive “firsts” that a portion of the country is either extremely uncomfortable with or downright despises ― the Democrats still left a far more progressive, far more hopeful ticket on the proverbial table.
Whitmer’s name came up consistently (though not seriously enough) in the VP contender conversation, and for good reason. Whitmer’s ability to forcefully articulate all that is wrong with a Republican Party beholden to a group of radical bigots and blatant misogynists is a sight to behold. And while Whitmer made it clear she planned to remain in Michigan rather than vie for a spot in the White House, wouldn’t it have been great to see her stand toe-to-toe with childless woman-hater JD Vance on a vice presidential candidate debate stage?
The one-liners! The fact-spewing! The side-eye worthy slights that best highlight how unqualified the GOP ticket truly is! Moments like what occurred recently at a Harris for President rally in Pennsylvania , when Whitmer shared the one thing she actually admires about Donald Trump’s running mate.
“Now my grandma always said that I needed to find at least one good thing about one person, so I’ll give JD this: He is efficient,” Whitmer said . “In one sentence he insulted women, Black people and Jewish people. That’s efficient, and that’s all I got.”
Whitmer dropped the proverbial mic straight on the Republican running mate’s big toe.
We need more of this, please.
Whitmer first became nationally recognized in 2013, when she spoke forcefully and vulnerably on the Michigan Senate floor about her experience with rape while attending Michigan State. Whitmer shared her story as she opposed a Republican-led effort to require women to purchase extra health insurance to cover abortion care even in cases of rape or incest.
“Over 20 years ago, I was a victim of rape,” she said. “And thank God it didn’t result in a pregnancy, because I can’t imagine going through what I went through and then having to consider what to do about an unwanted pregnancy from an attacker.”
In sharing something so painful and personal, Whitmer became more than a politician — she became a storyteller who, unfortunately, far too many of us can relate to with our own stories of inhumane violence and painful violation. Whitmer seems to know, inherently, the power of storytelling and how personal narratives can combat wave after wave of sexist hate and egregious disinformation.
And honestly, there was no better team to face a Republican presidential nominee who has been found liable for sexual assault and a wannabe vice president who has rallied against abortion ban exceptions while calling rape and incest “inconvenient circumstances” than a former prosecutor in Kamala Harris and a defiant sexual assault survivor in Gretchen Whitmer.
Sigh.
Whitmer was also the target of a domestic terrorism plot orchestrated by Trump-loving far-right extremists. Their goal, according to the FBI, was to kidnap, potentially torture and even kill Whitmer in an attempt to overthrow Michigan’s state government.
Instead of retreating in understandable fear for her well-being or resigning her post citing the need to protect her family, Whitmer forcefully chastised then-President Donald Trump after he refused to condemn the Michigan militia group responsible for the failed scheme. At the time, Trump doubled down on his attacks against her, calling the governor a wannabe “dictator” who “has to open up” because “people can’t stand her.”
“In this moment, blaming the victim is appalling and downright dangerous,” Whitmer said of Trump’s response. She also connected the foiled kidnapping attempt to Trump’s violent rhetoric, rightfully pointing out that when Trump called torch-carrying neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, “good people,” hate groups “heard the president’s words not as a rebuke but as a rallying cry.”
“When our leaders speak, their words matter,” she said. “They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions and they are complicit.”
Whitmer is, once again, a person who could have spoken from a place of lived experience when facing a Republican ticket of election-denying insurrection-apologists. Thankfully, Walz cannot (let’s not make surviving domestic terrorist kidnapping plots a thing, shall we?), which left Whitmer uniquely qualified to take on the Project 2025-loving Republican ticket in a vital election that will determine the fate of this nation’s democracy.
I get it. An all-woman ticket was scary. This country has, to date, failed to elect a woman as president, even when women run against egregiously unqualified, racist, sexist fraudsters. Obviously, far too many strategists, campaign advisers and even voters still do not believe this nation’s electorate is capable of selecting not one but two women to the White House.
So for the time being, I’ll be grateful -– joyful, even — that Democrats gave the nation a consolation prize in Walz: a girl-dad who has made reproductive justice not just a woman’s issue but also a man’s issue. I’ll happily support the man who correctly and succinctly labeled the GOP as “weird.” And I’ll continue to be grateful (and surprised) that Harris didn’t play it totally safe and pick a more moderate white dude as a running mate — a move that would have no doubt cost her campaign the history-making enthusiasm that has fundamentally changed this presidential campaign.
I’ll also maintain the hope that one day, ideally when I’m still breathing, Democrats will ditch politics’ outdated rule book, which has historically denied women access to the highest positions of power, and go all-in on an all-woman ticket.
I want to live to see women not just break the glass ceiling but demolish the motherfucker.
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