Gretchen Whitmer

“If you don't ask for money, people don't think you are a serious candidate.”

“The budget is absolutely interlinked - our ability to fund our education system, to clean up drinking water, is linked with our ability to rebuild roads in this state. I'm not signing anything unless it's all done together.”

“I'm proud to be a Michigander, but I look around at the Michigan that my kids are growing up in and it doesn't look like the Michigan that I think of when I talk about my pride.”

“There is a racial element: It's undeniable. We've had inequitable funding of schools for decades in the state of Michigan.”

“We have to make it easier to afford to go into education in the first place, so you don't leave with crippling debt that you never have a chance to pay back because you're not making enough money.”

“We need to ensure that everyone's got a path to getting a license, so they've got identification.”

“But ultimately, at the end of the day, people want leaders who they respect and who they believe in and who can get things done.”

“I am proud to be a progressive.”

“Midwest elections have consequences.”

“I think the most important thing to know is I'm running for governor because I love the state of Michigan.”

“Kids in high poverty are much more expensive to educate and need much more support... When they're packed into a classroom of 40 people, they don't have the support they need, they're lost. Schools are supposed to be the thing that levels the playing field.”

“And for government and a bunch of men in government, frankly, to get between a woman and her provider is downright dangerous, especially when most of them can't even spell endometriosis, much less tell you what it means.”

“It's hard to do, but a disciplined candidate who really has thoughtful solutions and a plan to execute on them, I think, is ultimately the kind of person that's going to resonate.”

“Michigan is a state that wants access for women to healthcare.”

“I make more meals than most men do in a week.”

“One of the weirdest questions I've gotten on the campaign trail is, 'Are you going to run as a woman?' I'm like, 'Do I have an option?' Like, what does this mean?”

“I wrote the Michigan 2020, which was a free college plan, before Bernie Sanders ever offered it on the national level.”

“Michigan will be Democratic in some years and Republican in some years. I don't think we'll ever make the mistake like we did in 2016 and not turn out again.”

“I was considered the most progressive person the whole time I was in the legislature. I negotiated health care, I negotiated a minimum wage increase.”

“Detroit's really important to the success of our state. You know, you can't have a successful Michigan if the biggest city isn't a success as well.”