Gretchen Whitmer
Gretchen Esther Whitmer (born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 and in the Michigan Senate from 2006 to 2015.
Gretchen Whitmer
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Whitmer was born and raised in Michigan. She is a graduate of Forest Hills Central High School, Michigan State University, and the Detroit College of Law. Her political career began in 2000 when she was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives. In 2006, she became a state senator, a position she kept until 2015. She was the Senate's first female Democratic leader from 2011 to 2015. In 2013, Whitmer gained national attention for a floor speech during a debate on abortion in which she shared her experience of being sexually assaulted. For six months in 2016, she was the prosecutor for Ingham County. Whitmer was elected governor in 2018, defeating Republican nominee and state attorney general Bill Schuette.
As governor, Whitmer has focused on healthcare and infrastructure legislation. In February 2020, she was selected to give the Democratic response to then President Donald Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address. On October 8,[1] the Federal Bureau of Investigation thwarted a militia group's kidnapping plot against Whitmer.[2] Since January 2021, Whitmer has served as one of the vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee. She was reelected governor in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Tudor Dixon.
Early life and education
Gretchen Whitmer was born on August 23, 1971, in Lansing, Michigan, the eldest of three children of Sharon H. "Sherry" Reisig (née Hanna) and Richard Whitmer, who were both attorneys.[3][4] Her father was head of the state department of commerce under Governor William Milliken, a Republican, and the president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan from 1988 to 2006.[5] Whitmer's mother worked as an assistant attorney general under Michigan Attorney General, Frank J. Kelley.[6] Her parents divorced when she was ten years old. She and her siblings moved with their mother to Grand Rapids; her father traveled from his home in Detroit to visit the family at least once a week.[7]
From 1985 to 1989, Whitmer attended Forest Hills Central High School near Grand Rapids, Michigan, participating in the school's softball and track and field teams.[8][9]
After graduating from Forest Hills, Whitmer enrolled at Michigan State University to study communications, with the intent of becoming a broadcaster for ESPN.[7] While in college she became an intern for state representative Curtis Hertel, which convinced her to study law. In 1998 she received her Juris Doctor from Michigan State's College of Law and began practicing law at the Dickinson Wright law firm's Lansing offices.[9][10]
In 1999, Whitmer was elected chair of the East Lansing Transportation Commission.
Ingham County prosecutor
On May 11, 2016, it was announced that the judges of Michigan's 30th Judicial Circuit Court had unanimously selected Whitmer to serve the remaining six months of outgoing Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III's term,[23] after he was arrested on March 14, 2016, and charged with 11 counts of involvement with a prostitute and four counts of willful neglect of duty.[24] In a letter dated March 29, 2016, Dunnings announced he would resign effective July 2.[25]
On June 21, 2016, Whitmer was administered the oath of office as prosecutor by Ingham County Circuit Court Chief Judge Janelle Lawless. She said her top priorities during her six months of service would be to determine if any other officials in the prosecutor's office knew about Dunnings's alleged crimes and to change how the office handled domestic violence and sexual assault cases.[26]
On July 22, 2016, Whitmer issued an 11-page report on whether Dunnings's alleged criminal activity had affected cases handled by the office. The report concluded that employees "were never asked to compromise a case or look the other way" and that she had "full confidence that any problem that had existed in this office left with Mr. Dunnings".[27][28] Whitmer's term expired on December 31, 2016.
Personal life
Whitmer and her first husband, Gary Shrewsbury, have two children. The couple divorced, and in 2011 she married dentist Marc P. Mallory, who has three children from his previous marriage.[189][190] Whitmer and Mallory live in the Michigan Governor's Mansion in Lansing, Michigan with her two daughters and his three sons.[3][191] They also own a vacation cottage in Antrim County, near Elk Rapids.[192] In May 2021, Whitmer was sharply criticized after being photographed without a mask at a Michigan restaurant, a violation of the state's COVID-19 mandate. She soon apologized publicly.[193]
Whitmer's sister, Liz Whitmer Gereghty, is a Katonah-Lewisboro School Board trustee in Westchester County, New York, and is a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 17th district, a swing district held by Republican freshman Mike Lawler, in 2024.[194][195][196]
Whitmer was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 2023, which she said she was "honored to be joining".[197][198]