Why 'That Woman From Michigan’ Should Be on Joe Biden's Short List for VP

"We've had a big problem with the young, a woman governor," President Donald Trump told his favorite television pundit Sean Hannity last week. The president continued musing, "You know who I'm talking about, from Michigan," later adding, "All she does is sit there and blame the federal government. She doesn't get it done." Then, the ultimate dismissal of strong women who dare to confront the monarch of Trumpworld: She had "not been pleasant."

A day later, at his regular White House briefing, Trump doubled-down on his criticism of the 48- year-old governor, telling Vice President Mike Pence, who is in charge of the administration's COVID-19 response, "don't call the woman in Michigan" because she wasn't "appreciative" of Trump's help. (He later acknowledged that Pence was indeed going to call her, and denied that he had tried to block that conversation from taking place,)

Whitmer was quick to respond on social media,. "Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me," she wrote on Twitter, adding to her message a waving hand emoji. "I've asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it."

In a normal world, none of us would be talking about Gretchen Whitmer at a national level; the governor has been on the job for less than two years. Then a state senator with a relatively low profile, Whitmer ran on the slogan "Fix the Damn Roads," riding a blue wave during the 2018 midterm elections and defeating a more charismatic candidate (and Bernie Sanders favorite), Abdul El-Sayed, in the Democratic primary,

But these are not normal times. These aren't even abnormal Trump times. No this is the new normal -- pandemic normal -- and in pandemic normal governors are the new YouTube stars: Cuomo of New York, Hogan of Maryland, Inslee of Washington, Newsom of California and Whitmer of Michigan, These governors -- who live in unglamorous places like Sacramento, Albany and Lansing, their State of the State speeches unwatched, their annual budgets attacked from all sides -- have shown in recent weeks that they are crucial first responders in a national emergency. Given the needed resources, they have the power to save lives: the lives of their citizens through stay-at-home orders, the lives of frontline workers with needed personal protection equipment (PPE) and the lives of patients with crucial and scarce ventilators. None of this has been easy to impose or easy to obtain -- but they are doing their best. (Let's try to forget, at least for a moment, the bumbling, bungling, uninformed responses of Georgia's Brian Kemp and Florida's Ron DeSantis.)

Whitmer, in particular, has been a squeaky wheel, unwilling to flatter and defer to the president. In fact, when she went on The Daily Show this past week, to tell Trevor Noah that she. like other governors, was not getting the federal aid her state desperately needed, she did so wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words, "That Woman From Michigan." (Duplicate t-shirts are now for sale online for $20.)

And she has drawn praise from Biden, who is said to be considering her as a vice presidential pick, along with more prominent candidates like Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Stacey Abrams. "She made the list in my mind two months ago," Biden recently told MSNBC's Brian Williams.

Biden later issued a statement in support of Whitmer, after Trump repeatedly criticized her in his press briefings. "Facing a dangerous abdication of leadership from Donald Trump during this pandemic, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been a tenacious fighter for Michigan families," Biden said in his statement. "Donald Trump could learn a thing or two from Governor Whitmer — speed matters, details matter, and people matter."

Others agree Whitmer should be under consideration for national office, "During this pandemic, she's been thoughtful, decisive, and has looked out for the needs of Michigan's families and small businesses while coping with this unprecedented public health crisis," Michael Barr, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, told me in a recent phone conversation. "President Ford would have been proud of Governor Whitmer's bipartisan approach to solving problems."

Of course, the president set governors up for this elevation with his complete lack of interest in governing, famously telling one reporter, "I don't take responsibility at all." Details don't matter to Trump. Trump sweats neither small nor large stuff. "We're not a shipping clerk," Trump said. And a few days later, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, told us "the notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile — it's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use."

The federal government's message is pretty clear—states are on their own.

Trump's problem with Whitmer is two-fold. First she's a self-confident woman who won't behave in the deferential way that Trump seems to expect from the women he comes in contact with. Second, she is a very popular governor who governs a swing state that the president needs to win for reelection. Recent polling had Whitmer at a 60 percent approval rate in her state, 15 percentage points higher than Trump. In 2016, Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes out of more than 5 million cast.

Whitmer, who gave a well-regarded Democratic Party response to Trump's State of the Union address on Feb. 4, is now a hero of the left, with her pragmatic and delightfully aggressive style. She reminds me of a slightly less flamboyant version of Texas Governor Ann Richards. She is organized, focused and unyielding.

Will her coronavirus response catapult her to a national stage? She seems to think not, telling a local CBS affiliate, "I am 14 months into the job that I am so grateful for and I have a lot of work to do", seeming to close the door to any discussion about her joining the 2020 ticket.

We'll see.

Originally Appeared on Vogue

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