Gretchen Whitmer

As governor, Gretchen Whitmer has supported a mix of tax policies including targeted tax cuts and credits for individuals and small businesses, business incentives and R&D tax credits, and proposals to raise revenues from large corporations and new wholesale taxes to fund road infrastructure. Her record shows both support for using taxes and targeted incentives to promote economic development and proposals to increase certain business taxes to pay for state priorities, producing a mixed pattern on economy and tax policy.

Supports expanding access to health coverage through government programs and strengthening the Affordable Care Act; has led state efforts to expand Medicaid (the Healthy Michigan Plan), increase Medicaid reimbursement and access to behavioral and telehealth services, and oppose federal Medicaid cuts. Emphasizes lowering costs, expanding mental and maternal health services, and protecting coverage for vulnerable residents.

Supports welcoming immigrants and refugees, including state proclamations recognizing Immigrant Heritage Month and World Refugee Day, and backing state measures to integrate undocumented residents (e.g., supporting driver’s licenses). At the same time she has publicly supported federal actions to strengthen border security that make removals of those unlawfully present easier.

Supports broad reproductive freedom including access to abortion and medical reproductive care. As governor, she backed the constitutional protection of reproductive freedom in Michigan (Proposal 3), issued executive actions to implement those protections, and signed the Reproductive Health Act to repeal restrictive laws and protect medication abortion and IVF access.

Supports economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2050 with interim greenhouse gas reduction targets and has advanced state policies to transition Michigan’s electric grid and transportation toward clean energy, including targets for high shares of renewable/clean power and investments in electrification and clean-energy jobs.

Supports expanded gun-safety measures including universal background checks, safe-storage requirements, and extreme risk protection orders while also investing in law enforcement and initiatives to remove illegal guns from communities. Has established a state task force on gun violence prevention and signed multiple bills to strengthen penalties for domestic abusers and keep guns out of the hands of people prohibited from possessing them.