Top 65 Quotes & Sayings by Gretchen Whitmer

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 make more meals than most men do in a week.

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.

I do believe ultimately the role is of our state government to ensure every child in this state has a great public school education.

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.

A child who can't read isn't going to get better because you told him he was bad.

You can be both progressive and want to get things done - they're not mutually exclusive and that's what I bring.

There have been too few women in leadership because they haven't had the opportunities.

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.

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.

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.

We've got to create strategies of our own that ensure that our kids are going to get an education they need, that people are getting connected to skills and that we do more to draw investment into the city of Flint.

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.

My number one priority is keeping our kids safe and protecting the health of the people of Michigan.

Michigan was the place that people used to move to from all around the world.

I grew up going to football games with my dad and we were just sports fanatics.

Lots of women candidates get compared to one another because there's so few women in office and positions in corporate America.

There is a racial element: It's undeniable. We've had inequitable funding of schools for decades in the state of Michigan.

Let's fix our roads, and be the state that's not paralyzed by partisanship, but works together. And create the blueprint for rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure.

People want leaders they can look up to, who can solve problems and actually deliver results for our people.

I believe you have a birthright to a good education.

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 know that the DeVos agenda has absolutely devastated our public school system in Michigan.

I'm a mom. I'm a lawyer. I'm a lifelong Michigander.

We need to ensure that everyone's got a path to getting a license, so they've got identification.

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.

The worst thing we can do is graduate kids who aren't prepared for the real world.

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.

If you don't ask for money, people don't think you are a serious candidate.

We are all better off when we raise skills in our state, and I know that Republicans and Democrats are going to hear from their communities, hear from their constituents, hear from the businesses in their areas about really making sure that we've got the workforce to make us competitive and raise wages in Michigan.

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.

I wrote the Michigan 2020, which was a free college plan, before Bernie Sanders ever offered it on the national level.

I'm not married to a 45-cent gas tax.

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.

Midwest elections have consequences.

You can't expect anyone to hand something to you. And I'm OK with that.

Community colleges are in every district in this state, they serve Republican and Democratic families and non-partisan and non-political families as well.

I ran on fixing the roads... I ran on cleaning up drinking water.

The voices of the residents of Flint did not get heard by people that were making decisions and I think that's the most important thing. I want to make sure those voices are answered in the future.

Flint's got so many hardworking, good people who just want a fair shake and it starts with making sure their government is responsive and protecting them and making sure everyone's got access to clean water.

Nobody should get fired because of who they are, or who they love.

I know that when we deprive communities of their voice, it can be dangerous.

Our students are not broken. Our teachers are not broken. It's our system that has been broken.

I think the most important thing to know is I'm running for governor because I love the state of Michigan.

There was nothing that amazed me more than parents that could channel the loss of their child into a crusade to protect other people's kids.

I am proud to be a progressive.

People in Michigan don't care about the president's Twitter feed. We care about feeding our families.

Governor Granholm had all the right values but didn't have the right background.

Michigan is a state that wants access for women to healthcare.

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'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.

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.

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.

There's not one path for everyone, but everyone deserves a path that's right for them.