LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer insisted Monday that President Joe Biden can still win her state, a key battleground in the 2024 election, even as many national Democrats question whether Biden should move forward after his shaky debate performance.
Whitmer’s statement comes as many in her party wonder whether she can replace Biden and take on the Republicans. Donald Trump this fall. Whitmer and several other top Democrats nationally have publicly endorsed Biden since Thursday’s debate.
“I am proud to endorse Joe Biden as our nominee and I stand with him 100 percent in the fight to defeat Donald Trump,” she said in her statement. “I not only believe Joe can win Michigan, I know he can because he has the receipts: He has lowered health care costs, brought back manufacturing jobs, and is committed to restoring the reproductive freedoms that women lost under Donald Trump.”
The statement comes after Politico Magazine reported Monday that Whitmer had called Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, on Friday. It quotes “someone close to a potential Whitmer rival for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination” as saying that the Michigan governor “called O’Malley Dillon with a more unequivocal SOS: to report that Michigan, after the debate, was no longer winnable for Biden.”
A Whitmer aide, Helen Hare, said the reported comment was inaccurate.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Jen O’Malley Dillon is Biden’s re-election campaign chair, not campaign manager.
