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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made abortion rights a key pillar of her 2022 reelection campaign — so much so that people often questioned her approach.

“‘Are you talking too much about abortion, and should we be talking about the economy?’” she recalled being asked repeatedly. “That always struck me as just nonsensical, because the most profound decision a woman makes in her lifetime with economic consequences is when and whether to have a baby. And so abortion is part of our economic conversation.”

Whitmer’s resounding win in November shows her strategy was justified. Voters in Michigan and elsewhere backed many Democrats in key swing states who campaigned on protecting abortion access — a sign of the issue’s potential potency going into the presidential election cycle.

Now, a year after the Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal abortion rights, Whitmer is reflecting on the work that remains to protect abortion access. She hopes her party is thinking about it, too.

“I think every one of us has a stake in this next national election, because it’s going to impact these rights for all of us, no matter what state you’re in,” she told The 19th this month.

Whitmer, a rising star in the Democratic Party, won’t be on the ballot in 2024. But she is taking on a role indicative of her growing status: She will serve on President Joe Biden’s reelection team as a national co-chair. And she just launched the Fight Like Hell PAC — its name a nod to one of her reelection rallying cries — to help Democrats raise money to run for national office.

These roles come as Michigan creates a potential blueprint for what Democrats do with power: This year, Whitmer has signed into law legislation that has restored labor rights, addressed gun violence and protected LGBTQ+ rights.

Whitmer said the lesson Michigan offers Democrats is that they should focus on issues that make people’s lives better and get things done: “You don’t hear me talking about pie-in-the-sky initiatives that don’t have any foot in reality.”

She added: “How can you improve the quality of someone’s life? That’s what this is all about. And so whether it’s protecting our democracy, or our fundamental freedoms or our civil rights, these are not settled. They’re always at risk. And that’s why I think, going into 2024, they will continue to be front and center for leaders who are running, but also for voters who are deciding who their leaders are.”

Whitmer, often discussed as a potential future presidential candidate, declined to talk about elections beyond 2024, saying she is “making no plans to run for anything.” But she reiterated her support for seeing a woman at the top of the ticket soon.

“I am focused on doing this job, but I do think that there are a lot of phenomenal female leaders out there who should consider running and I would like to live in a country where that is a reality,” she said. “I’d like my daughters to live in that country as well.”

Whitmer says the work isn’t done in Michigan or nationwide to ensure access to abortion. She noted old laws still exist in Michigan that effectively burden abortion providers by requiring costly requirements in their clinics. The governor said she’s working with the legislature to address more potential changes.

That kind of state-level response became a reality after the Supreme Court ruling on June 24, 2022, which ricocheted the issue of abortion back to state legislatures and governors, many of whom took on more prominent roles in deciding the local fate of abortion access.

Among them was Whitmer, who had already been in a legal fight to stop a dormant 1931 abortion ban from taking effect again. Democrats also rallied behind a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.

Just days before the Supreme Court’s ruling, Whitmer was at a roundtable in Grand Rapids to hear from constituents about their support for abortion. The roundtables, held several times around the state last year, included Republicans. More than once someone at a roundtable would tell Whitmer they didn’t vote for her in 2018 but was spurred by the fight over abortion to campaign for her and the ballot initiative, she said. 

“I think it was in those moments that it really, for me, meant we’ve got to be bold. We’ve got to be inclusive, and we’ve gotta talk about the issues in a real way — not trying to dance around them,” she said. “This is a fundamental right that we thought would be there and had been there for almost 50 years.”

Voters gave Michigan Democrats majorities in the legislature — a trifecta of power for the party not achieved in 40 years — and with that, Whitmer has ensured the ballot measure was turned into policy. Courts also eventually struck down the 1931 law, and Whitmer later signed into law a full repeal.

“We’ve done really incredible work under unimaginable circumstances, and we won,” Whitmer said.

Abortion access as a policy issue is at the forefront in Michigan as Whitmer oversees a state government that is nearly entirely led by women, including in a state legislature that was once notoriously known for open misogyny.

“I think it’s improved because there are more women around the table, but there’s more work to be done, without question,” she said.

She recalled a recent incident in the legislature where two men were “lecturing” her on a law.

“I thought, ‘Gosh, this is mansplaining at its best, right? These two non-lawyers are telling me, the only lawyer in the room, what the law is, and I just use that as one example where even in a position of authority and responsibility as governor, I still deal with this stuff. And so if I am, you know, it’s happening everywhere. And not every man does that. And not every Democrat’s perfect, and not every Republican’s imperfect, right? But this is still a cultural shift that’s happening, and we’re navigating it in real time in a lot of ways.”

The level of representation reached in Michigan has carried risks for policymakers. Before the 2020 election, several men were arrested and charged in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap Whitmer. Several of them have been convicted and sentenced to prison.

Whitmer said as we enter another election cycle, it’s important to call out threats of political violence, whether it’s directed at her or an opponent, and to hold people accountable.

“It’s been a lot of ups and downs these last few years, and I’m grateful that there’s so many law enforcement and prosecutors and jurors who take their oath seriously and have held people accountable in my case, but that has to happen regularly and across the spectrum. And so I think that it is one of the things I’m always mindful of is: I want to encourage women and people of color to jump in and to run. But we also have to make sure that people can feel safe to do that. It shouldn’t be an either/or — it has to be both.”