New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (left) and
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are among those thought to be on Joe
Biden's vice presidential shortlist.
As the coronavirus spread across the country in March, President Trump held a conference call with the nation's governors and reportedly told them they should try to find their own supplies of ventilators and respirators.
Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan's Democratic governor, said she couldn't believe it.
"To
hear the leader of the federal government telling us to work around the
federal government because it's too slow is just kind of mind-boggling,
to be honest," Whitmer told MSNBC.
Trump fired back on Twitter,
saying "'Half' Whitmer ... doesn't have a clue." And later, as the
death toll in Michigan mounted, Trump said he told Vice President Pence
to ignore governors who don't show enough appreciation. "Don't call the
woman in Michigan," he said from the White House briefing room.
The back and forth thrust Whitmer — a former Michigan Senate minority
leader who has only been leading her state since early 2019 — into the
national spotlight.
It also previewed an ongoing theme of this pandemic — a debate over who should take the lead in managing the crisis.
Now,
Whitmer and another governor confronting the pandemic at the state
level, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, are two of the candidates
reportedly said to be on Joe Biden's vice presidential shortlist. The
presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Tuesday that he plans
to announce his pick next week.
Lujan Grisham was New Mexico's
health secretary before three terms in Congress, where she was chair of
the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and then became governor in 2019.
Lujan Grisham had dealt with a flu outbreak as health secretary, and
so she started preparing for the coronavirus when it spread abroad in
January, rushing to secure testing supplies. She also issued early
lockdown orders when there were just a few cases in New Mexico.
Lujan Grisham puts on her face mask when not speaking
during an April 15 update on the COVID-19 outbreak in the state.
Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal via AP
Still, she said she was surprised by the lack of a national strategy.
"In
my wildest dreams I would not be spending my own specific time finding
testing supplies, and the right manufacturers, getting swabs and then
chasing PPE," she recently told The Washington Post.
The
dynamic was unprecedented, said Kathleen Sebelius, the former Kansas
governor who was secretary of health and human services under former
President Barack Obama and was vetted for the vice presidency in 2008.
"All
governors found themselves in a very unique position, with a federal
government who didn't want responsibility, so over and over again,
governors have stepped into this vacuum," she said.
Governors seen "taking action"
Former
Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard said that's why it's the perfect moment to
put a governor on Biden's ticket. He is close with the Biden campaign
and has advised several vice presidential searches for Democratic
nominees.
"You know, until the virus, governors were in the
shadows of government," he said. "It's been the senators who get all the
attention because they're on all the cable shows every night."