Governor Gretchen Whitmer is putting in some road time to stump for President Joe Biden’s reelection. One of her stops Friday was a newly opened campaign headquarters in in bright-red Livingston County.
One of Whitmer’s missions is to convince people that their experiences will soon detect economic improvements they’re not yet feeling.
“People’s attitudes are really evolving,” she said. “We know that success in the economy doesn’t always immediately translate to how people are feeling in their households when your grocery bill keeps going up, but take-home pay has also gone up.”
And Michigan’s unemployment rate remains low. It was 3.9% last month, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
Whitmer said inflation remains nettlesome, but wages are also up and there are many other issues voters are watching that tie into the economy.
“Is it about reproductive rights? Is it about free opportunities to get skills to get into a better-paying job? Is it about making sure we’re onshoring supply chains?” she said. “These are all about the economy and I would argue that they’re all going to be absolutely central to what’s on voters’ minds.”
Whitmer said her swings to conservative corners of the state like Brighton show Democrats understand that every vote will matter in 2024.
Biden won Michigan four years ago with 50.6% of the votes (even though he got swamped in Livingston County). Four years earlier, Trump won Michigan by a razor-thin margin of 47.5% to Hillary Clinton’s 47.3%.
