When housing advocates were pressuring Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to extend her COVID-19 eviction moratorium and landlords were saying it would result in their financial ruin, the only Midwesterner on former Vice President Joe Biden’s whittled-down VP shortlist came up with a middle way.
At the end of June, Whitmer extended her initial moratorium through July 16 to give state workers time to set up an Eviction Diversion Program using $60 million from the state’s Coronvirus Relief Funds that were part of the CARES Act passed in Congress at the end of March.
The program pays grants to landlords of up to 90% of a tenant’s back rent if they forgive the remaining 10% and any late fees. In some cases, tenants with income higher than the area’s median who don’t qualify for full assistance are put in repayment plans the state negotiates with landlords, according to program details.
“No Michigander should have to worry about losing their home during a global health pandemic and, at the same time, landlords and management companies need rent from their tenants to sustain their businesses,” Whitmer said. “This innovative new program will save lives, save money, and save businesses by keeping families in their homes and providing immediate financial relief to landlords for back rent they’re due.”
That 90% of back rent is more than many landlords would get if they went through the standard eviction procedure, paying legal fees and court costs, Kelly Rose, the chief housing solutions officer with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, told Michigan Public Media, the state’s public radio network.
Whitmer, who campaigned to become governor of Michigan in 2018 with the slogan “Fix the damn roads,” is the only VP finalist known to have met in person with Biden in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press story on Friday confirmed by NBC News and other media outlets using anonymous sources.
While the expectations for the timing of Biden’s announcement for his VP pick keep changing, the final deadline is the Aug. 17 start of the Democratic National Convention. That means it’s likely to be this week.
Recent speculation around Biden’s VP pick has centered on other short-listers: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice. But, they aren’t known to have had a recent sit-down with the former vice president.
Whitmer boarded a chartered jet at Capital Region International Airport in Lansing, Michigan, the evening of Aug. 2 to fly to Delaware Coastal Airport, the AP story said.
That’s about 19 miles from Biden’s beach home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. A return flight left for Michigan at 11:16 p.m., the story said. Whitmer’s office refused to confirm or deny the story.
“We don’t discuss her personal schedule,” spokeswoman Tiffany Brown told AP.
Biden’s campaign declined to comment. Democratic officials confirmed the meeting to both AP and NBC News.
While many in the Democratic Party have urged Biden to pick a woman of color, Biden’s only commitment so far is to choose a woman. He has cited the two main characteristics he’s looking for: Someone qualified to become president on “Day One,” as he puts it, and a VP who he’s “simpatico” with – who can be to him what he was to President Barack Obama.
In other words, Biden is looking for a Biden.
Whether that’s Whitmer isn’t yet clear. But if she is picked, she can thank, at least in part, President Donald Trump who brought her to national prominence in March. As her state was battling a surge in COVID-19 cases, Trump denigrated her on national TV as “the woman in Michigan.”
Whitmer was trying to get personal protective equipment for frontline workers, especially in hard-hit Detroit, and was calling out the federal government for leaving states to bid against each other for pandemic supplies.
At a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing with reporters at the end of March, Trump said he had instructed Vice President Mike Pence not to call governors who have not been “appreciative” enough of his efforts.
“Don’t call the woman in Michigan,” Trump said he had told Pence.
Whitmer, who was known for her devastating wit when debating on the floor of the state legislature or wrangling votes, chose to hold her fire. She wrote on Twitter: “I’m willing to work with anyone as long as we get the personal protective equipment we need for the people of Michigan.”
She let Trump’s comments do the heavy lifting. There was an outpouring of support for her and her state. It brought her to Biden’s attention, according to a profile in Politico.
“Had the president not singled her out, perhaps Biden wouldn’t have noticed her charm, her humanity, her steady hand and sense of humor,” the story said. “Perhaps Biden wouldn’t have noticed that Whitmer, more than anybody else he’s considering for the job, is a lot like him.”
While it vaulted her to national prominence, Whitmer didn’t need any introduction to Michiganders. Both parents had storied careers in politics long before Whitmer, the eldest of their three children, was born.
She was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 2000, and went on to serve in the state Senate for almost a decade, becoming leader of Senate Democrats when the party was in the minority.
In 2018, she vanquished her Republican opponent to become the state’s government, beating him by an almost 10-percentage-point margin.
Her acceptance speech, in a battleground state Trump won in 2016, was the kind of “bringing people together” rhetoric Biden is known for.
“At a time when we see too many people who want to divide us through building walls, I think we in Michigan need to get back to building bridges,” she said, highlighting her campaign focus on infrastructure. “We have so many challenges in front of us, and now more than ever we need people from both sides of the aisle to work together.”
