You could see it on Gretchen Whitmer’s face, during her visit to the Oval Office, that she was done with politics.
Or you could have, if she hadn’t covered it with a blue folder.
That’s why it took a Whitmer interview with a Canadian journalist last week to reveal a truth the media should have told months ago: Whitmer 2028 is dead.
Michigan has never had an elected president. We’ve had more presidential assassins than presidents. (Shout out to Gerald Ford.)
Well, Gretchen Whitmer won’t be ending that trend. Not in 2028. Not ever.
Whitmer bowed out of the 2028 presidential race last week. Whitmer disclaimed any Main Character Energy but said she wanted to be in the room when that person was chosen.
This story should have been told months ago by the Lansing media that follows Whitmer’s every move and reports her every utterance. Instead, it fell to a Canadian named Steve Paikan to deliver the biggest scoop in Lansing. Sad!
Most times when the Lansing media avoids bad-news stories on Whitmer, they’re playing hide-the-ball with the truth.
When Whitmer shredded the Michigan Constitution during Covid, it took a Michigan Supreme Court ruling for the herd to admit it. The harshest criticism they offered of Whitmer during Covid was that she pushed too many tables together at a Lansing dive bar.
But this time, with the Whitmer drop-out, it was different. Nobody wanted to admit the truth about Whitmer until it came out of her mouth. Nobody even wanted to ask the question, lest they be confronted with the truth.
The dots were there for months, just waiting to be connected.
Turning down the chance to run alongside Kamala Harris. The Dorito-communion video that helped cost Harris a swing state. The book tour to nowhere, with Stephen Colbert laughing in Whitmer’s face about the thinness of her memoir. The folder over the face. The 200-plus-day refusal to call a special election for the senate district in Saginaw Bay. Her disinterest in the budget process.
Were any of those the actions of a governor who will run for president in 2028?
In 1993, a reporter in Arkansas, Detroit native Ron Fournier, followed Bill Clinton from Little Rock to Washington after Clinton became president.
It’s the politics version of ESPN’s Brian Windhorst following LeBron James from Akron to Cleveland and then to Miami, before branching off to become his own man.
It’s a time-honored tradition: When the person you report on gets a promotion, you get a promotion.
Whitmer’s elevation to the national stage would have made many Lansing reporters sought-out for their knowledge. With Whitmer in an unfamiliar land, their head start would be an unfair advantage.
Now the truth is out. That Woman from Michigan has no plans to rise beyond Michigan.
Gretchen Whitmer has kissed politics goodbye. But it’s the Lansing media that’s most affected. And there is no clear next move.
Take a flier on Mike Duggan, the trans-Independent? The man who pulled down the bust of Christopher Columbus in 2020, and hoisted the Pride flag in 2025, but swears he’s a moderate?
Go all-in on Election Barbie, Jocelyn Benson? Where every sympathetic feature you write is snowed over by five other on her failures as Secretary of State?
It was all so simple in March 2020: Whitmer would lockdown her way onto Biden’s ticket as running mate.
Benson would fortify their path to the White House.
The Lansing herd would follow.
And now, it’s all over.
James David Dickson is an enjoyer of Michigan. Join him in conversation on X at @downi75.
