Fresh off an investment mission to Singapore, Japan, and Germany, Whitmer returned to Detroit to tell economic developers from across the country that a core part of Michigan’s competitive strategy is taking the state’s pitch on the road – even to the White House.
“We’ll go anywhere,” Whitmer said.
In a fireside chat at the IEDC conference on Wednesday, Whitmer pointed to her appearance at the IAA Mobility show in Munich — where she was the only U.S. governor in attendance — as an example of how Michigan signals its credibility to global investors.
“It shows Michigan is serious, and that it’s a safe place to make a bet.”
The Playbook
Whitmer framed Michigan’s edge in three words: people, projects, places.
People: With the highest concentration of engineers in the U.S., the state is also pushing toward its “Sixty by 30” goal – 60% of adults with a skills certificate or college degree by 2030, already at 54%.
Projects: Beyond autos, Michigan is pulling in semiconductors and defense. Whitmer argued the state can pivot its industrial know-how into national security: “Mobility skills translate into defense skills – it’s all connected.”
Places: “What works in Detroit may not work in another part of the state, and that’s okay,” she said. (In conversations with Michigan economic leaders this week, Standard & Works was told this place-tailored approach extends to NIMBYism: if a community doesn’t want something, they move on.)
The Differentiators
Water + Energy: “You can’t do chips or data centers without good, predictable water,” Whitmer said, pointing to the Great Lakes’ 21% share of the world’s fresh surface supply.
Whitmer also noted the Palisades nuclear plant — the first restart of a reactor in North America — as an enabler of energy-intensive AI infrastructure.
De-risking: “We want to de-risk investment in unpredictable times,” she said, describing Michigan’s new R&D tax credit and innovation fund as a way to lower exposure for investors.
On governors as dealmakers: “People often say the governor is the top development person in the state – none of them have ever done it before,” Whitmer quipped, adding that directly engaging in trips and pitches provided her essential insights when she first ascended from the Legislature to the Governor’s Office.
S&W’S TAKE
A throughline between Whitmer’s remarks and those earlier this week from Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan — who is vying to succeed her as governor — is the assertiveness to inject themselves directly into deals.
Duggan recalled forcing Detroit into a Jeep plant site selection process that originally favored greenfield sites in the South before the city won.
Whitmer’s “go anywhere” mentality reflects the same competitive instinct, paired with a governor’s reach.
