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Governor Gretchen Whitmer is thinking about the presidency.
That does not mean she’s running for the job or that she’s not running, but she has obviously been thinking about it. .
The Democratic governor is eyeing her exit from the statehouse (where she has served in the House, the Senate and, finally, the executive office) but not from politics. Her future role, she says, is yet to be determined. (And, of course, that brings everyone to the question, maybe president, Big Gretch?)
Now, Dennis Archer Jr. did not go quite that far in an on-stage conversation at Wednesday’sMichigan Chronicle Pancakes and Politics forum in Detroit. But he did ask her what people should be looking for in a presidential candidate two years from now. And Whitmer has obviously been thinking about not just a candidate, but an agenda and organizing an administration in the post-Trump era.
“They are going to need an Avengers-style cabinet,” she answered.
“There is going to be so much work,” she said. “And so I say that because we're going to need a leader who is like Abraham Lincoln and a team of rivals who can pull the most talented people they can find and articulate and execute a strategy to rebuild nationally, but also to rebuild us globally. And that is no small undertaking.”
And, she laid out the challenges of building back from – well we’re not sure if she considers the current administration a Loki- or a Thanos-level problem – but she says it’s big.
“There is going to be so much work to do to address the issues that we are confronting as a nation, to rebuild our standing in the world, hell, to rebuild a relationship with Canada, right?” she said. “You build trust in teaspoons. You lose it by the bucket.”
Whitmer threw props to her fellow governors and said there are a lot of good options for Democrats without endorsing anyone in particular or taking herself out of the running.
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What we’re talking about at the dinner table
Iowa on my mind: Campaigning for Democrats ahead of the midterms, Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin was in Iowa this week and it’s spurring continued questions about whether she is also interested in running for president in 2028. She told the Des Moines Register “I’m not so arrogant as to think it has to be me… midterms is what I’m focused on right now, but if it comes to the point afterwards that I think there’s not anyone else who’s on the right path, I guess I wouldn’t say no forever.”
Pete to Mackinac: Meantime, another possible 2028 presidential candidate will be speaking at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference in May. Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will “draw on his firsthand experience in local and national politics to share insights on how leaders can navigate political divides and collaborate on solutions to pressing challenges,” the Chamber says. The conference would certainly be a place for a Michigander with presidential aspirations to spend a week rubbing elbows with possible campaign funders.
Big bucks: $45 million. That’s how much a Republican group says it’s going to spend on behalf of Republican Mike Rogers’ campaign to win Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat. “The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a super political action committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, said it’s the organization’s largest and earliest ever investment in Michigan, which Republicans consider one of the best pick-up opportunities of the fall midterm elections… The large and early investment by SLF this cycle is a nod of confidence in Rogers’ team after he largely cleared the primary field and locked up President Donald Trump’s endorsement last summer,” the Detroit News’ Melissa Nann Burke reports.
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Yours in political nerdiness,
Rick Pluta & Zoe Clark
Co-hosts, It’s Just Politics
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IJP ON THE ROAD
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 – 7:00 p.m.
In person and online - Register Here
Join Michigan Public's Political Director Zoe Clark, Senior Capitol Correspondent Rick Pluta, and their FAQ Squad panelists as they give you the facts of the upcoming election cycle!
