It’s spring 2020. America is locked down. President Trump just elevated our governor to superstar status by calling her That Woman From Michigan. 

When free people protested and demanded the right to work and support their families, Whitmer threatened them. She said their protesting could extend lockdowns—that protesters were not Staying Home and Staying Safe. 

Then, on Memorial Day, George Floyd died. News reports said he was killed by a cop in Minneapolis who put a knee on his neck. Toxicology reports told another story, but by that point, the narrative was set in stone.

George Floyd was no longer a man, he was a martyr. He was a symbol. He was a saint.

As Black Lives Matter burned cities across America, Democrats scrambled. The progressive impulse means you must always DO SOMETHING, but it wasn’t clear exactly what. 

Without the White House or Congress as their bully pulpit, Joe Biden, the Democrat nominee, announced that he wouldn’t just pick “a woman” as his running mate, he would choose a woman of color.

Try as Whitmer might to keep up her tanning schedule, she was excluded from the final round of the search. After years of developing a relationship with Biden, after busting out the pearls to greet him at the airport, Whitmer was being passed over, through no fault of her own.

Whitmer tried to cover up her sour grapes by telling the newspapers she agreed with Biden’s want of a colored woman.

But we get only so many chances in life. Whitmer didn’t miss hers so much as she had it taken from her. Whitmer was out, and Kamala Harris—a woman who called Biden racist during the primary—was in.

Biden was supposed to be a one-term president. That’s the deal Democrats made in 2020 to elevate him as the consensus candidate. Four years later, Biden’s ego got the better of him. He looked around, decided that no other Democrat had a better shot of beating Trump, and reneged on the deal.

Then, in June, the House of Biden collapsed. On the debate stage with Trump, Biden froze and mumbled. Biden didn’t look well, let alone presidential.

The knives came out for Biden, from his own coalition. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is one of the most ruthless politicians in American history. It was Pelosi who delivered the news that Biden would step aside willingly, or be forced out. 

So Biden did step aside—and he presented Harris, his vice president, as his heir apparent. As the only logical replacement. Barack Obama and others wanted a full primary process and were instead stuck with a consensus pick there was no consensus for. 

That was Harris. In another set of circumstances, it would have been That Woman from Michigan, Whitmer. 

You might think Donald Trump was inevitable in 2024, but I can assure you Gretchen Whitmer didn’t think that. She tried her best to catapult herself into the upper echelons, with a memoir that was timed to drop just as Democrats would want to replace Biden. But there was no chance to win hearts and minds. 

A choice made in summer 2020 affects Gretchen Whitmer and all of America four years later. Harris benefited from identity politics but wasn’t willing to play her trump cards in the moment of truth. Whitmer would have been and likely would’ve done well with white women. Maybe even well enough to win the election. 

If George Floyd doesn’t die on Memorial Day 2020, we might be preparing for Gretchen Whitmer to take office. 

Windows of opportunity don’t stay open forever. With only two more years in the governor’s office, and the next election four years away, it’s fair to ask whether Whitmer has already missed hers. 

James David Dickson is host of the Enjoyer Podcast. Join him in conversation on X @downi75.