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- President Joe Biden has struggled to make his infrastructure success resonate with voters.
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told the Times that many voters simply aren't plugged into DC.
- "I think the pandemic's taken a toll. People are stressed out," she told the newspaper.
When Gretchen Whitmer first ran for the Michigan governorship in 2018, she pledged to "fix the damn roads."
The slogan stuck and was a big part of Whitmer's winning campaign that year. So she knows a lot about effective political messaging.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Whitmer was asked why President Joe Biden has so far struggled to earn widespread credit for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law among voters.
Her response? Voters have been worn out by the pandemic and many just haven't been tuned in to what's happening in Washington.
"I think the pandemic's taken a toll. People are stressed out," Whitmer told the Times. "They're just trying to pay the grocery bill, get the kids off to school, show up at their job, and maybe get a little bit of sleep at night. They're not consuming everything."
Whitmer, a cochair of Biden's reelection campaign and a figure often touted as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, remarked that Democrats have to go out and effectively speak with voters about the merits of the infrastructure overhaul and laws like the CHIPS Act — which was crafted to turbocharge semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.
"We've got to tell that story better," the governor added.
Biden counts the infrastructure law passed by Congress in 2021 as one of his crowning political achievements.
But voters in recent surveys have only given him a slight edge on the issue compared to Trump — who floated infrastructure reforms numerous times during his presidency but failed to produce a concrete framework for lawmakers.
In a Politico-Morning Consult poll conducted in April, 40% of registered voters said Biden had done more on infrastructure upgrades and job creation, while 37% of respondents selected Trump.