Stabenow hailed as paving way for Harris to get elected

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Posted By: jasabacklink August 22, 2024

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) was lauded by state and national leaders as someone whose career paved the way for, and parallels, Vice President Kamala Harris’ rise in politics during a Michigan delegation breakfast Wednesday before the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

For roughly two hours, a team of state and federal leaders honored Stabenow and U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint), who are both retiring at the end of the year when their current terms end.

Stabenow, 74, has said that she wanted to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders.

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U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) compared that to President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid, endorsing Harris as his successor.

Michigan Democrats have been holding their delegation breakfasts in the International Ballroom of the Hilton Chicago – the same ballroom where former President Lyndon B. Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would no longer seek a second term in the White House.

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) is the Democratic nominee to succeed Stabenow. She will face off with Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers in November.

“All the media, they’re constantly asking all of us who are wandering around this convention, ‘What do you think, can we have our first woman president? … Can we actually win in this state?’” Slotkin said. “You want to understand how to elect women to every higher office, look at Michigan. Michigan women are showing the whole damn country what it means to elect women.”

Women currently hold the titles of governor, attorney general and secretary of state in Michigan, along with Senate majority leader and chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

But while Michigan may be lighting the path to electing women, it was Stabenow who paved it.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan recalled campaigning with Stabenow during her bid for governor in 1994, when there had never been a woman nominated for governor, secretary of state or attorney general by either major political party.

“Every place Debbie went, she had to convince people to envision something they had never envisioned,” Duggan said.

Stabenow lost the Democratic primary to former U.S. Rep. Howard Wolpe, but was asked to join the ticket as lieutenant governor. They went on to lose handily to Republican Gov. John Engler, who won all but two counties.

Duggan blamed the loss on a “dirty political act.”

“You know how Debbie Stabenow reacted? She turned and she had that Debbie Stabenow death stare, you know what it looks like,” Duggan said. “She said to me, ‘Now I know what men are willing to do to win an election, and I will never come up short again.’”

Two years later, she ran for the U.S. House and defeated incumbent Republican Dick Chrysler.

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, left, and U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., right, at a Michigan Democratic Party delegation breakfast on day three of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill., on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi praised Stabenow’s political instincts during her time in the House.

“When she would go to the podium to speak, she would make her case in a very strong way. Frequently, her case was to take down the Republican assault on our values and our country, but she always did it with a beautiful Debbie Stabenow smile,” Pelosi said. “We all used to say, how come the rest of us get up there and rough and tumble, and she gets up there with a smile and boom, boom, boom just carves out the other side.”

After serving two terms in the House, Stabenow became the first woman to serve as a U.S. senator, winning in 2000 by ousting incumbent Republican Spencer Abraham.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Stabenow the “queen of agriculture,” noting that a record-setting five farm bills have been passed under Stabenow’s leadership.

“She is the epitome of a Michigander who shows up with grit, cares about her neighbors and doesn’t back down from a tough fight,” Whitmer said.

Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who’s now U.S. energy secretary, attended the breakfast Wednesday, became the first woman elected governor in Michigan in 2002.

And in 2024, all of Michigan’s top offices are occupied by Democratic women: Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Attorney General Dana Nessel.

“As I see my friends Debbie Stabenow and Jennifer Granholm here today, I think, would you have imagined that summer, 30 years ago, that we would be here with a woman governor, a woman attorney general, a woman secretary of state, and about to elect the first woman president of the United States?” Duggan said.

Slotkin said that Stabenow opened the door to elect more women leaders because she “plowed through all the pessimism and the anger with women rising to the top.”

Benson similarly credited Stabenow with their success, noting that every Democrat elected statewide since Stabenow ran for Senate, other than U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Carl Levin, has been a woman.

“When she ran, when she was first elected as the first female senator in the state of Michigan, what she did was create a sea change for women leaders in the state,” Benson said. “All of us owe our strength to Debbie Stabenow because of what she built in our state to help not just elect the first female senator from Michigan, but to lift others up as she went.”

While Slotkin credited Stabenow with opening the door to her election, she credited Kildee with helping her – along with U.S. Reps. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit) and Hillary Scholten (D-Grand Rapids) – be successful.

Kildee is the dean of Michigan’s House delegation.

“Not every delegation has a serious, thoughtful, decent person as the head of delegation. Dan Kildee is that guy,” Slotkin said.

Slotkin said that “the Midwest is on display” and “no one’s more Midwestern than Dan Kildee,” comparing him to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president.

“Right now, we have a Midwesterner in Tim Walz, we have a Midwesterner in [Ohio U.S. Sen.] J.D. Vance. We see that the Midwest is being recognized,” Slotkin said. “We all know guys like Tim Walz, don’t we? And we all know guys like JD Vance. Tim Walz, the coach, the teacher, the guy who makes you put jumper cables in the back of your car; J.D. Vance, the guy who’s splitting us apart, who’s angry, who doesn’t have hope and positivity to share with other people.

“Dan Kildee is cut from the first vision. The guy who will teach your kid how to drive on the highway, the guy who will mow your lawn if you break your leg, that’s Dan Kildee,” Slotkin said.

Stevens said that Kildee and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) are the “mom and dad” of Michigan’s congressional Democrats.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, speaks at a Michigan Democratic Party delegation breakfast on day three of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill., on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)

“You have to understand, we’re in the squirm sometimes. I mean, we’re working on tough stuff,” Steven said. “It gets a little nerve-wracking, this stuff. We had to impeach a president. Slotkin and I come in, all of a sudden we’re responsible for half the nation’s impeachments. We were in districts that voted for him.

“We had Mom and Dad. We had Kildee’s steady hand, always asking the right questions, always playing it smooth and cool, and then we had Dingell, who was keeping us on our toes,” Stevens said.

Kildee was elected to Congress in 2012, filling a seat previously held for more than 30 years by his uncle, the late U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee.

Dingell was elected to Congress in 2014, filling a seat held for 60 years by her husband, the longest-serving member of Congress in history, the late U.S. Rep. John Dingell.

“The Kildee name and the Dingell name have a long history and tradition,” Dingell said.

“I bet Dan would be rich for every dollar he got when someone called him Dale,” Dingell said. “And just for the record, I’d be rich for every time someone called John [Dingell] my father, or they say how sad I am that I’m retiring. I finally called Debbie [Stabenow]’s office and said, ‘I have to put something out and say there are two Debbies, one’s blonde, one’s redheaded.’ This one’s not going anywhere. People voted for me last week and were still telling me they were sorry I was retiring.”

But Pelosi said Kildee quickly stepped out of any shadow his uncle may have cast.

“When Dan came, following in a great tradition, he immediately made his own mark in the House of Representatives and established such a record of greatness,” Pelosi said.

Kildee represented Flint during a pivotal moment for the city, and leaders who spoke Wednesday credited him with getting aid for the city during its water crisis.

“He literally awakened the entire Congress and got folks who did not want to see what was happening in Flint, they saw it because of Dan Kildee,” said Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.).

 

At the time, Republicans controlled the U.S. House, but Kildee was successful in passing aid anyways.

“They were never inclined to give us what we wanted on our side of the aisle, but the moral case that Dan Kildee made, the vision of something better for the people of Flint, the knowledge of the impact that it was having on people, the personal stories that he could tell, the hearings that he had, proved irresistible to the then-Republican Speaker of the House [Paul Ryan], and in the legislation, Dan got what he was looking for,” Pelosi said.

Prior to running for Congress, Kildee held many jobs in local government: He served on the Flint Board of Education, Genesee County’s board of commissioners and as Genesee County treasurer.

Duggan credited Kildee’s work as treasurer, creating the Genesee County Land Bank in 2002, as laying the groundwork for the Detroit Land Bank.

In January, Kildee will trade in his congressional member pin for a new hat: CEO of Community Foundation of Greater Flint and “full-time grandfather.”

“I want to thank my family who has allowed me the space to do this work,” Kildee said. “Many of you know my family has been through a lot lately. So, I’m really anxious to be able to be a full time Flintstone, a full time Michigander, a full-time grandfather and being home.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Kildee has “made a difference with his intellect, and his heart, and his soul, and his compassion, and his desire to do what is necessary to improve the quality of life of the people that he has been privileged to serve.”

“I’ve never changed jobs in my life, and I’m not about to do that now,” Kildee said. “I’m going to get a new business card, and I’m going to get a new toolbox, but it’s the same work.”

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