LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vowed in an interview Tuesday to serve a full four-year term if she's reelected on Nov. 8, pushing back against speculation that a run for higher office could be in her near future.
"I've heard it, and it's baloney," Whitmer said of the presidential politics chatter.
"I am running for four more years as governor, and that's exactly what I want to do," she added in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday with The Detroit News.
A Democrat who is being challenged this fall by GOP nominee Tudor Dixon, Whitmer gained the national spotlight in 2020 as Michigan faced COVID-19 surges that filled hospitals and she clashed with then-President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Whitmer is vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and Democrat Joe Biden considered selecting her as his running mate in 2020. Biden ultimately picked U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California in August 2020 and won the November 2020 presidential election.
Some observers have floated Whitmer, a former state lawmaker from East Lansing, as a potential Democratic candidate for president if Biden decides against running for a second term in 2024.
Asked in an interview Tuesday if she would commit to serving a full four-year term as governor if she wins reelection, Whitmer responded, "Yes."
On Friday, Dixon, a political commentator from Norton Shores and first-time candidate, criticized Whitmer for pushing what the Republican described as "far left" policies on education, electric vehicles and energy, comparing them to the stances of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.
"Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom are in a primary together right now for president of the United States," Dixon told a crowd at a town hall in Rochester Hills on Friday. "Be aware of that."
Whitmer won her first term as governor in 2018, defeating then-Attorney General Bill Schuette by 9 percentage points. In a potential second term, Whitmer said she wants to focus on boosting literacy rates, protecting reproductive and voting rights, securing the future of the auto industry in Michigan and improving the state's roads and bridges.
"This is decades of disinvestment that we are tackling," Whitmer said of the state's infrastructure. "It's not going to be completed in one term or two terms or even a couple of governors. This is an ongoing need for our state."
During a 25-minute interview Tuesday with The Detroit News, four weeks before Election Day, Whitmer denounced Dixon's criticisms that Democrats were overly focused on the subject of abortion in the race for governor. Democrats have spent millions of dollars on TV ads criticizing Dixon's opposition to abortion, including in cases of rape and incest.
Dixon, who has been endorsed by the anti-abortion group Right to Life of Michigan, told the crowd at her town hall Friday night that abortion policy had been decided by a judge, referring to a Court of Claims judge who ruled in September that the state's 1931 law banning abortion was unconstitutional.
"That has already been decided in the state of Michigan. The fact that she is running on this is ridiculous," Dixon said of Whitmer.
However, Whitmer said the next governor of Michigan is "absolutely" going to impact abortion rights in the state, regardless of whether a proposal to enshrine abortion rights into the state Constitution, Proposal 3, is approved by voters this fall.
"Mrs. Dixon either doesn't understand the powers of the office she's running for or she's lying to people," Whitmer told the News. "Either way, it's incredibly dangerous."
A Sept. 26-29 poll from The Detroit News and WDIV-TV showed Dixon trailing Whitmer by 17 percentage points, 32.2% to 49.5%. The survey of 600 likely voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. However, 12.3% of participants in the poll were undecided, meaning if they break toward Dixon in the remaining weeks, the election could be significantly closer.
The first debate between Dixon and Whitmer will take place Thursday night in Grand Rapids.
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(Detroit News staff writer Beth LeBlanc contributed to this story.)
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