On Wednesday, February 25, after 2,612 days in office (that’s seven years and counting since January 1, 2019), Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivered her eighth and final State of the State address. In the speech, she outlined a plan to tackle… issues that somehow still exist after 7+ years of her leadership.
The facts that she admitted to (and still need to be fixed) are stark: Michigan is 44th in 4th-grade reading. Boys are falling behind. Housing is expensive. Health care isn’t affordable. Families are treading water. In other words, after 2,612 days, the “kitchen- table issues” that Michiganders face are still sitting at the table.
What WASN’T mentioned in her swan song was the long list of heavy-handed executive orders that defined the COVID era in Michigan under her leadership – the lockdowns that shuttered small businesses, the school closures that left students isolated and academically behind, the nursing home policies that sparked outrage, the mask mandates, the capacity limits, the travel restrictions, and the agonizing months of rule- by-decree.
Restaurants closed for good. Kids lost critical learning time. Mental health struggles spiked. Parents became part-time teachers overnight. Supply chains faltered. Inflation hit working families hard. It was NOT a good time under the authoritarian “leadership” of Big Gretch.
No, in her final address, there was no reflection on the long-term costs of her decisions during the COVID era. But that’s her REAL legacy and repercussions from those decisions are still around today. And it will remain her legacy when she tries to run for president in 2028.