| The Governor’s strategy for revitalizing her state has two parts: to grow, Michigan needs young people; to draw young people, it needs to have the social policies they want.  Photograph by Paola Kudacki for The New Yorker The story of Gretchen Whitmer’s political ascent is the story of the building of a new Democratic coalition, but it’s also about the sudden transformation and seeming collapse of the Republican Party in Michigan. Benjamin Wallace-Wells travels to Lansing to make sense of how a state that Donald Trump won in 2016 turned left so dramatically, leading to an anti-G.O.P. environment in which, as one former Party official puts it, “it could be ten years or more until we’re competitive” again. Meanwhile, Whitmer—or “that woman from Michigan,” as Trump angrily referred to her during the pandemic—has seen her star continue to rise, yielding frequent questions about her own Presidential ambitions. As for what she thinks it takes for a politician to succeed at this moment, she says, “It’s an interesting combination of cold blood and genuine passion.” Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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