Who is Gretchen Withmer, the Michigan governor who beats Trump in the latest poll

The governor is a lawyer and the daughter of lawyers (one worked for the Republicans, one for the Democrats). She has two daughters and is married on her second marriage to a dentist who has three children, all seven of whom live together; her husband had to give up his job because of threats. Politics was something of a family trade, and Whitmer described it as an activity passed down from generation to generation. When she took office in January 2019, she wrote precise instructions to her staff to 'do less and obsess about doing it right' and to 'move quickly on all things'.  No department, division or person, she wrote, would take credit for an accomplishment, reports the Washington Post.

Big Gretch, as her fans call her and as a rap song dedicated to her is called (a nickname she does not like), did not fully accept Trump's 2016 victory in Michigan: 'It was due to low turnout', was her explanation. A big supporter of abortion to the point of confessing to a rape she was subjected to as a young girl in order to support the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, the face of a moderate liberalism from the wealthy suburbs that allowed her to surf victorious over Trumpism that instead focused on the industrial decline of the Midwest, she is a pragmatist: when many in her party were working on a smoking ban in the state, Whitmer worked on an exception for casinos so as not to lose the support of the powerful gambling lobby. He sponsored the expansion of LGBT rights arguing that it is what the younger generation expected, promoted more union-friendly legislation after the restrictive ones sought by Republicans, provided tax breaks for the underserved and the elderly, and gun control measures. His administration has also helped investments in Transition, as the transition to electric cars is commonly called in Michigan, a crucial point in rebuilding that blue wall, the Democratic wall for years a guarantee of presidential victory.

During the pandemic, Governor Withmer distinguished herself by imposing in Michigan one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the country and also by criticising the Trump administration's handling of the issue, which in response apostrophised her as 'that woman from Michigan' and asked her deputy Pence, head of the anti-Covid task force, not to take her calls. She started wearing the T-shirt that read 'that woman from Michigan' arguing 'the best way to disarm a bully is to take his weapon and make it your shield'.

In October 2020 Withmer risked being kidnapped by a group called Wolverine Watchmen, thirteen militiamen who planned to take her on a boat and abandon her in the middle of Lake Michigan. Some journalists later wrote that at least one of the members of the plot had been seen the summer before the attempted kidnapping, at a political event with State Senate Republican Majority Leader Mike Shirkey.

Whitmer, who claimed to have good relations with big companies such as General Motors also tried to lure Disney to Michigan, defended his policies saying they would put his state 'on the right side of history', and assured: 'It will be good for business'. To tackle the state's declining demographics, he has appointed a woman chief growth officer (a figure that sits alongside a bipartisan ad hoc committee) and can boast low unemployment levels. Last November he signed a legislative package requiring state energy suppliers to meet some of the country's most aggressive green energy targets.