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What’s wrong with Gretchen Whitmer? August 9, 2026
Three recent decisions by Governor Gretchen Whitmer are making Democrats and her traditional supporters feel betrayed. They are discussed in a July 20 story by Jon King in Michigan Advance. Here is a summary: #1: Veto of 9 bills One was her veto of 9 bills carried over from 2024 that for some reason didn’t go to her for signature after they were passed by the then Democrat controlled House and Senate. There was a two-year legal battle ending with the Michigan Supreme Court ordering Republican House Majority Leader Matt Hall to present the bills to Whitmer. Although she had 14 days to discuss with supporters any issues she had with the bills, she vetoed them within hours of landing on her desk. Here is her veto letter. In a Facebook post by Mark Brewer, former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party and lawyer for the group supporting the bills, he says the problems she cites with the bills are non-existent and her veto “cannot be justified”. (See ‘Stabbed in the back’: Unions, House Democrats call Whitmer’s veto of 9 bills a betrayal.) #2: Welcoming mega data centers The second “betrayal” was her weak data center plan, which seemed to welcome massive data centers with little concern for the noise and the demand on electricity and water. Unlike her veto of the nine bills, organized labor was likely with her on this one, favoring anything they thought would create jobs, no matter such concerns as the damage to the environment.
#3: Approving the Line 5 tunnel In July, over objections from Indian tribes and environmentalists, Whitmer’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) and Public Service Commission (PSC) approved permits for Enbridge’s tunnel under the straits of Mackinac. The opposing groups sued and it went all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court, where on July 31, 6 of 7 justices rejected those permits. As reported in Michigan Advance, the justices said
In a July 31 Substack post - apparently written before the Supreme Court decision came down - Whitmer claims to have always been against the pipeline. However, she does not mention the proposed tunnel, only "an aging pipeline." Was she not aware that EGLE and the PSC - her own agencies - had approved permits for the tunnel project two weeks earlier, on July 15? ******************************************************************************************** I know that I said there were 3 decisions that went against her traditional constituency, but there were a couple other things Whitmer did that makes me think something is wrong with her head. #4: Misstating state debt reduction by $29 billion In her final State of the State address in February, Whitmer said that she had paid off $28 billion of debt since she took office in 2017. Actually, total state debt increased by $1 billion. This is explained in a May 8 story by Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press. The story was published in the Lansing State Journal. Whitmer seems to have confused payments on total state debt with contributions to the state’s three pension programs, for State Employees, Public School Employees and State Police. Those contributions totaled $28 billion since 2017 and are required by state law with the intent of paying off all unfunded pension liabilities by 2038. So was Whitmer’s misstatement due to ignorance or was it intentionally misleading? #5: Hiding her face in the Oval Office Then there was Whitmer’s attempt to hide her face when she realized reporters were filming her visit to President Trump in the Oval Office in April 2025.
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