LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made a direct appeal to young men who shifted sharply to the right in the most recent election in a speech Wednesday in which she continued to call for each major party to work across the aisle.
Whitmer delivered her speech just days after sitting next to President Donald Trump at a White House dinner and reiterated her hope to find common ground with him. As a potential 2028 presidential candidate with a national profile built on advocating for women’s rights, Whitmer emphasized that her message was directed “to all young people, but especially to our young men.”
“The last thing any of us wants is a generation of young men falling behind their fathers and grandfathers,” Whitmer said.
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Young men swung sharply for Trump in the November election. He gained a larger share of Black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, most notably among men under age 45, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters. Many respondents cited Trump’s approach to the economy and job opportunity.
Whitmer nodded to areas where women have outpaced men in recent years, including educational achievement and home-buying. She said twice as many women are enrolling in a state program for tuition-free community college as men.
Republican House Speaker Matt Hall said after Whitmer’s speech that she is trying to figure out “what is the right message to try to bring men back to the Democratic Party.”
“The rhetoric is great, but the record has to match that,” Hall said.
Whitmer pledged to sign an executive order to boost young men’s enrollment in education and skill-training programs.
One of 12 female state governors and arguably the most well-known, Whitmer has built a national profile on fighting for women’s rights. She helped pass a ballot measure in 2022 that codified reproductive rights in the state and was one of the nation’s leading abortion rights advocates in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.
“And to the women out there who are succeeding after decades of having the deck stacked against them, I see your resilience and I will never abandon my commitment to equal opportunity and dignity for everyone,” she said.
The address was the second-term governor’s second-to-last State of the State speech due to term limits. The speech serves as an annual platform for the governor to promote policy.
In her final two years as governor, Whitmer faces a split Legislature after Republicans flipped the state House of Representatives. She has consistently said she wants to work with Trump and Republicans in Michigan, and she signed a bipartisan package to alter minimum wage requirements in the state last week.
Whitmer struck a similar tone Wednesday.
“My north star has always been collaboration,” she said.
But not all Democrats in the state have agreed with that approach.
“I am concerned about normalizing what we see in the presidency right now,” Michigan Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel said to the Associated Press, criticizing the tone Whitmer has taken with the President.
Nessel is one of a number of Democratic Attorneys General who have been hitting the Trump administration and Elon’s Musk’s DOGE with lawsuits, alleging unconstitutional action on a number of fronts. She called it a “fool’s errand” to negotiate with the president.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, was complimentary of the Governor’s collaborative message, but wants Whitmer and other governors to address certain moves by Trump.
“There are also a lot of people who are feeling anxious and afraid because of who they love, what they look like or where they’re from,” she said. “So we have to talk about the strength of Michigan being born out of keeping everyone safe and everyone protected.”
In her speech Wednesday, Whitmer promoted legislation to limit cellphone usage in schools and to tax vape products. Republicans have signaled their support for legislation limiting cellphone usage in schools, while disapproving of Whitmer’s plan to tax vapes.
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