In an era when so many women are stepping up to lead, I'm hoping people will focus on our ideas and accomplishments instead of our appearance.
Gretchen Whitmer
One of the weirdest questions I've gotten on the campaign trail is, 'Are you going to run as a woman?' I'm like, 'Do I have an option?' Like, what does this mean?
I make more meals than most men do in a week.
For the longest time we looked at the career as a ladder, right, that there was one way up. I want to make sure that in Michigan we think of skills as rock climbing, that there's a different path for everyone. And each has dignity and each has the ability to make a good living here.
At a time when too many people want to separate us by building walls, we here in Michigan are going to get back to building bridges together.
And for government and a bunch of men in government, frankly, to get between a woman and her provider is downright dangerous, especially when most of them can't even spell endometriosis, much less tell you what it means.
People in Michigan don't care about the president's Twitter feed. We care about feeding our families.
I'm not married to a 45-cent gas tax.
The goal is to make sure everyone has got their lead pipes replaced, and I know that's moving forward in the city of Flint. My job is to make sure that we have accountability and ensure we are getting the job done.
You can get a lot done when you don't care about credit. My name was not on Medicaid expansion, but it never would have happened without the work that I did. The best leaders are the ones that want results, not credit.
One way or another, we're going to fix the roads in Michigan.
Nobody should get fired because of who they are, or who they love.
I ran on fixing the roads... I ran on cleaning up drinking water.
So many of these decisions are made in a vacuum with a bunch of men sitting around a table deciding what a woman's rights should be, what our access to health care, trying to control women by controlling our bodies.
What any candidate should do in any race, frankly, is to show up. There's no special, secret sauce there. It's about having real conversations with real people, and when you do that you stay tethered to the things that matter. And that's what people want.
Together we can build the Michigan we believe in, because we still have what we need most - the strength, the talent, the vision and the grit of the incredible people of this state.
People want leaders they can look up to, who can solve problems and actually deliver results for our people.
There's not one path for everyone, but everyone deserves a path that's right for them.
I grew up going to football games with my dad and we were just sports fanatics.
But ultimately, at the end of the day, people want leaders who they respect and who they believe in and who can get things done.
Michigan was the place that people used to move to from all around the world.
I know that the DeVos agenda has absolutely devastated our public school system in Michigan.
In my campaign I hardly ever talked about what's happening in Washington D.C. I talked about how we're going to fix the damn roads, how we clean up drinking water, and ensure people get access to the skills they need to get good paying jobs.
Obviously, Detroiters pay the worst when it comes to car insurance, but car insurance is expensive for Michiganders across the state. I hear about it in all communities.
I think the most important thing to know is I'm running for governor because I love the state of Michigan.
My number one priority is keeping our kids safe and protecting the health of the people of Michigan.
You can't expect anyone to hand something to you. And I'm OK with that.
Kids in high poverty are much more expensive to educate and need much more support... When they're packed into a classroom of 40 people, they don't have the support they need, they're lost. Schools are supposed to be the thing that levels the playing field.
I believe you have a birthright to a good education.
But over 20 years ago I was a victim of rape. And thank god it didn't result in a pregnancy. Because I can't imagine going through what I went through and then having to consider what to do about an unwanted pregnancy from an attacker.
I was considered the most progressive person the whole time I was in the legislature. I negotiated health care, I negotiated a minimum wage increase.
A child who can't read isn't going to get better because you told him he was bad.
People don't cut through Michigan the way they cut through Ohio and Pennsylvania and Illinois. So tolls are more complicated for us because we're a destination state.
Detroit's really important to the success of our state. You know, you can't have a successful Michigan if the biggest city isn't a success as well.
Michigan's problems are not partisan problems. Potholes are not political. There is no such thing as Republican or Democratic school kids or drinking water. These challenges affect us all. They make Michigan a harder place to get ahead. A harder place to raise a family. A harder place to run a business.
Our students are not broken. Our teachers are not broken. It's our system that has been broken.
We need to ensure that everyone's got a path to getting a license, so they've got identification.
Lots of women candidates get compared to one another because there's so few women in office and positions in corporate America.
I know that when we deprive communities of their voice, it can be dangerous.
If you don't ask for money, people don't think you are a serious candidate.
Michigan will be Democratic in some years and Republican in some years. I don't think we'll ever make the mistake like we did in 2016 and not turn out again.
I talk about jobs. I talk about education. I talk about making government work for people. That's really the dinner-table issues that I hear from Michiganders in every part of our state.
I'm proud to be a Michigander, but I look around at the Michigan that my kids are growing up in and it doesn't look like the Michigan that I think of when I talk about my pride.
There have been too few women in leadership because they haven't had the opportunities.
We have to make it easier to afford to go into education in the first place, so you don't leave with crippling debt that you never have a chance to pay back because you're not making enough money.
Midwest elections have consequences.
The budget is absolutely interlinked - our ability to fund our education system, to clean up drinking water, is linked with our ability to rebuild roads in this state. I'm not signing anything unless it's all done together.
Governor Granholm had all the right values but didn't have the right background.
I wrote the Michigan 2020, which was a free college plan, before Bernie Sanders ever offered it on the national level.
I am proud to be a progressive.
