Whitmer endorses Harris: ‘I am fired up’

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Monday endorsed Vice President Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, giving Harris a major boost and foreclosing the possibility of the vice president facing a serious challenge from a popular battle-state governor.

“Today, I am fired up to endorse Kamala Harris for president of the United States,” Whitmer said in a statement.

“In Vice President Harris, Michigan voters have a presidential candidate they can count on to focus on lowering their costs, restoring their freedoms, bringing jobs and supply chains back home from overseas, and building an economy that works for working people,” Whitmer continued.

In a later post on social media, Whitmer said she would be co-chairing the Harris campaign.

The Michigan governor praised Harris’s background as a prosecutor and contrasted her to Trump, whom she called a “convicted felon who stokes violence, overturned Roe, attacked our auto industry, which hardworking families depend on, left office after losing 100,000 manufacturing jobs, and drove our economy into the ground last time he was in the White House.”

“Vice President Harris has my full support,” Whitmer said. “So Michigan, let’s get to work. We cannot let Donald Trump anywhere near the White House.”

Whitmer released her endorsement in coordination with three fellow Midwestern Democratic governors who also endorsed Harris: Illinois’s JB Pritzker, Minnesota’s Tim Walz and Wisconsin’s Tony Evers.

Whitmer was viewed as one of Harris’s most viable rivals for the nomination before President Biden announced his decision Sunday not to seek a second term.

Another Democratic star, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, said last week that he would not challenge Harris for the nomination if Biden dropped out of the race.

Both Whitmer and Newsom had communicated to Democratic leaders before Biden announced his decision that they would not be interested in serving as Harris’s running mate, according to a source familiar with internal party conversations.  

Updated at 11:59 a.m.