Hours After 2028 Comments, Whitmer Walks Them Back

UPDATE May 29, 2026 1:30 AM CDT

Hours after Gretchen Whitmer said to count her out for the 2028 presidential race, the Michigan governor walked those comments back, the AP reports. "You know, I never thought I would run for governor, so I guess I should know better than to say any of it. Never say never," Whitmer said later Thursday, during an onstage interview following her annual speech at the Mackinac policy conference, when she was asked about the earlier remarks. "At this juncture, I've got nothing to announce." She added, "I guess I'll smile and say, 'I'm going to stay focused' and leave it at that for now," saying she wanted to "correct the record" after what she'd said earlier in the day, which she painted as simply an answer to her "100th question of the morning about it."

May 28, 2026 10:55 AM CDT

Michigan's Democratic governor is taking her name off one much-watched list. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday she will not run for president in 2028, telling Detroit's Fox 2 that while there "will be a robust group of people running for president; I will not be one of them in 2028." Michigan governors are limited to two terms and Whitmer's second term ends this year. "I want to do good work, but I'm also looking forward to taking a little bit of a break and thinking about it, not jumping right into something," she says. Whitmer has high approval ratings in the swing state and she had been seen as one of the likeliest Democratic contenders in 2028, the New York Times reports.

She said she's been talking over her future with figures including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan, and everyone's advice was, "Take a little bit of time," the Detroit News reports. She spoke to Fox 2 on the third day of the Mackinac Policy Conference, attended by potential Democratic presidential candidates including Buttigieg and Sen. Elissa Slotkin. Last month, Whitmer said she would take time before deciding her next move, the AP reports. "I don't know that I'll put my name on the ballot again. I'm just not sure," she said. "But I also am 54 years old. I got a lot of gas in the tank."