Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Morning Joe Thursday, just days ahead of her state’s March 10 primary. Whitmer said Biden is working to protect health care, and tied the personal story of her mother’s death from brain cancer to the Obama-Biden fight for the Affordable Care Act.
“Joe Biden is someone that I know is working to protect health care, that was expanded under the Obama administration and that’s personal to me,” she said, and told the story of taking care of her own mother, 18 years earlier, as her mom suffered from the same brain cancer that claimed the life of Biden’s son, Beau.
“When the chips were down, they had our back,” she said of former President Barack Obama and Biden.
Whitmer then tied Biden’s current approach to the 2018 kitchen table issues strategy that led to a blue wave for Democrats in the midterm elections.
The governor acknowledged that she’d recently said the chances she’d endorse a candidate in this election were “low,” but told the panel that things can change quickly, and that she knows what it’s like to be written off as a candidate, and respected the grit Biden showed in making a comeback.
Many analysts are looking to Michigan — which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) won convincingly over Hillary Clinton in 2016 — as a critical test for the Vermont firebrand, who had a tough night on Super Tuesday. A Biden win there could help the former Vice President tighten his grip on the nomination.
“All roads to the White House lead through my state,” Whitmer said.
Watch the full video above, via MSNBC.
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