Whitmer avoids statewide press as her national star keeps rising

Decades from now, when we’ve moved well beyond Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s time in office and presuming I’m still around, this is the image of the governor I’ll have emblazoned in my mind: Gretchen Whitmer wearing a mask. At a lectern. In her press auditorium. Holding another hourlong press conference on COVID. 

Day after day, Whitmer was our pipeline of information, letting us know what we could do, how we could do it safely, what order she was issuing, and how many were sick. 

And yet, in 2025, those days are long gone. The governor known for her statewide media accessibility has disappeared, rarely appearing for instate interviews, never holding a lengthy, all-questions-answered news conference. 

That press auditorium we all remember from COVID? Whitmer hasn’t used it in more than a year. She’s used it once in the past two. 

A review of her press advisories for the last nine quarters has found that the governor has made herself available to take in-state press questions six times in the first three months of 2025, taking three to four questions each time. What is that? Twenty questions, maybe? 

By comparison, the National Journal reported that President Donald Trump took over 1,000 questions from reporters in his first month back on the job. 

From Jan. 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, Whitmer averaged 27 press events per quarter. She’s averaging eight from July 1, 2024, to Monday of this week. 

Who cares, right? Whitmer is putting out videos, emails and social media posts. A few weeks ago, she had Halle Berry at the Executive Residence to talk about menopause. Wait. You didn’t know that, did you? 

The truth is that you don’t really know what the governor is doing. We know she was in Great Britain and Ireland last week on an economic trade mission and was in the United Arab Emirates last month.  

Have there been any daily press briefings on what she’s doing there? Nope. 

As of Tuesday, one press advisory was on the calendar. It’s in Washington, D.C. After the event, she plans to sit with former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. 

The governor’s attention has shifted as she nears the end of her term. The messy battles with legislation, budgets, etc. — clearly, they are not as interesting as it was before.  

How many times did the governor hold a news conference encouraging Democratic legislative leaders to pass various bills in the last few weeks of their trifecta during the lame-duck session? 

You got it. Zero. 

In fact, between a turkey pardon in mid-November and a bill signing in mid-January, Whitmer had no media availability. The House collapsed in dysfunction and Whitmer was shooting a video on working with incoming Republican Speaker Matt Hall. 

For Whitmer, the attention to instate media began disappearing after her book “True Gretch” emerged. Since then, Whitmer has been on numerous national programs like “The View” and “CBS This Morning.” Appearances on statewide programs like Michigan’s “Big Show”? Gone. 

Her focus is now projecting a more national message that doesn’t include viral slip-ups with some local reporter on some offbeat topic. 

What about getting into a messy budget back-and-forth with Hall about unrealistic income tax cut proposals or a road funding plan with at least $2 billion in mystery money?  

Why bother? In the limited state events she is doing, she gets just as many TV cameras watching her attend a maritime manufacturing program graduation in Warren or reading to kids at a Livonia day care. 

In case you miss her, Whitmer is always around for her 363,000 Instagram followers, half a million X followers, or 425,000 Facebook followers.  

She had a post or two about Trans Day of Visibility. Her heart goes out to the Northern Michigan residents impacted by this weekend’s ice storm. She’s still in touch with people, right?

Or is she glossing over the fact that she’s checking out of being the active governor she was and checking into a new role as a potential presidential candidate? 

(Kyle Melinn is the editor of the Capitol news service MIRS. You can email him at melinnky@gmail.com.)