Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is everywhere right now, conveying just how much of a rising star she currently is in the Democratic Party. On Wednesday she appeared on The Daily Show, wearing a shirt emblazoned with “That Woman From Michigan,” an obvious clapback at President Trump for his egregiously unprofessional and overtly condescending remark about her last week.

On Saturday, she teamed up with the Detroit Lions, Pistons, Red Wings, and Tigers to release a call to action video encouraging nurses and doctors to bring their skills to Michigan as a way to volunteer and help bolster the number of health care professionals fighting on the front lines against the COVID-19 pandemic. Her public profile has risen so high that she’s now in the mix to be the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate. Whitmer now has the third best odds of assuming the position, behind only the favorite Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. 

It’s very impressive for someone who really wasn’t even on the radar, in this regard, until the middle of last month. In the end, it is likely that inexperience on the national stage will prohibit her from being on the bottom of the Presidential ticket this time, but the 48-year-old Lansing, Michigan native will certainly be on the national stage before too long.

It’s looking very likely that Joe Biden’s running mate will be a woman, with Elizabeth Warren and Stacy Abrams also considered strong contenders. We’ll know more about that when summer gets here and Democratic National Convention draws near. In the present, Whitmer is one of a handful of American governors stepping up and taking charge, filling that very large void of leadership at the Federal level. The state of Michigan, and the city of Detroit especially, is a coronavirus hot spot right now, and Whitmer is displaying poise right now in this time of extreme crisis.

“I am grateful for the health care professionals who are on the front lines of this pandemic every single day, but these brave men and women can’t do it alone,” Whitmer said in the PSA video she made with leading figures from the four Detroit sports teams.

“That’s why we are asking nurses, doctors, and qualified health care professionals across the country to bring their expertise to our state to combat this virus. If we work together, we can slow the spread and save lives.” 

Hopefully, healthcare workers will heed this call to action and the Great Lakes state gets the aid they need.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No,  I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation. 

You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.

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