# Michigan

Michigan is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. Its name comes from the Ojibwe word mishigami, meaning "large water" or "large lake". With a population of approximately 10 million, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, the 11th most extensive by area, and the largest by area east of the Mississippi River. The region was controlled by the French Colonial Empire until getting annexed by the British Empire in the Seven Years’ War, was transferred to the United States as part of the Northwest Territory at the end of the American Revolution, and was granted full statehood in 1837. Michigan is known by many for the Porcupine Mountains, it also contains over 10,000 lakes. Its state capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. The state government is currently controlled by the Democratic Party, and its current governor is Gretchen Whitmer.

## Quotes

Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · See also · External links
* [one Michigan hospital] failed to provide and maintain a sanitary environment resulting in the potential for the spread of infectious disease to 151 served by the facility
** federal inspectors in Michigan according to As patients fell ill with COVID inside hospitals, government oversight fell short (DECEMBER 23, 2021)
* It was 1989, my thoughts were short, my hair was long, Caught somewhere between a boy and man. She was seventeen and she was far from in-between. It was summertime in Northern Michigan.
** "All Summer Long", written by Kid Rock, Edward King, Leroy Marinell, Gary Rossington, Matthew Shafer, Ronnie Van Zant, Waddy Wachtel and Warren Zevon

### B

* I'm looking forward to this race. I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come out and ask for the vote. I'm traveling your important State asking for the vote. You got some big differences in this campaign. One of them is that my opponent thinks you can find the heart and soul in Hollywood. I think you find it right here in Traverse City, Michigan.
** George W. Bush, Remarks in Traverse City, Michigan, 16 August 2004

### C

* That sales pitch he's making to be your President? Put your faith in him -- and you'll win big? That's the same sales pitch he made to all those small businesses. Then Trump walked away, and left working people holding the bag. He also talks a big game about putting America First. Please explain to me what part of America First leads him to make Trump ties in China, not Colorado. Trump suits in Mexico, not Michigan. Trump furniture in Turkey, not Ohio. Trump picture frames in India, not Wisconsin. Donald Trump says he wants to make America great again -- well, he could start by actually making things in America again.
** Hillary Clinton, Democratic National Convention Nomination Acceptance Address, delivered 28 July 2016, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

### F

* No national goal today in the domestic area is more important than this one. Yes, energy does mean much more than operate machines of industry or heat our homes or power our automobiles. It fuels our total economy. Energy means jobs. If we increase our energy capability or capacity, there will be more jobs for New Jersey and for every one of our States, including my State of Michigan, which is in a somewhat comparable situation to all of you in this great State. If our domestic source or supply continues to diminish as it is and our dependence on high-priced foreign oil increases, there will be fewer and fewer and fewer jobs and higher and higher unemployment in America. To put it very practically, we must stop exporting American dollars and American jobs. We must keep those jobs in America, in New Jersey, in Michigan, and we must create more and more jobs in this country.
** Gerald Ford, Remarks at a Republican Party Fundraising Dinner in Newark, New Jersey, 4 October 1975
* Even with the immense growth of governmental levels in recent decades, the fact remains that five out of every six jobs in this country are still in the private sector. Simple arithmetic tells us this is the place to look for new jobs and for better jobs. This is where the people have been laid off and where they must first go back on the payroll. I don't need to say that twice here in Michigan, where automobile workers and all the other jobs that depend upon them have been especially hard hit. The good news, however, is that the United States automobile industry is turning around. And in the first 20 days of 1976, new car sales were up 37.2 percent over 1975. But even the most sincere proponents of Federal public works and public service job programs don't contend that the cure for unemployment in the American automobile industry is to build Federal factories to make Federal cars. I doubt that the United States Government could make a Model T for less than $50,000.
** Gerald Ford, Remarks at the Midwest Republican Conference in Dearborn, Michigan., 31 January 1976
* The country was in pretty bad shape. If you will recollect, as I have on occasion, we were at the depths of a recession, the worst recession in 40 years in this country. We had many serious problems. The rate of inflation was still too high. Unemployment in our own great State of Michigan had plummeted. The automobile industry was in serious condition. There was great despair in many parts of the country, and Michigan was more heavily hit than most States. But it's nice to be here with all of you this year, where I keep reading about how things have changed in Michigan. The automobile industry is having one of its top years, either third or fourth in the history of the industry, with every week or every reporting time the production schedules of the automobile industry going up, with a resurgence of public confidence. So, it's a much better atmosphere in which I am your guest tonight than it was a year ago.
** Gerald Ford, Remarks at a Reception for Members of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, 6 May 1976
* Betty and I started this train trip from Flint to Niles across the heartland of Michigan, where we have many, many friends over a long, long period of time, so we have just had a wonderful reception, and this one in Battle Creek is tremendous. And let me say that this train trip through the heartland of Michigan is the beginning of a victory in Kansas City that will end up with a victory on November 2. You know, I'm an old Michigander--and I mean literally old. I played football so long ago back at Ann Arbor that it was back when the ball was round. But I have been honored and pleased to have on this trip with me two of the University of Michigan's outstanding coaches, two friends of mine whose teams I have admired and cheered for on television and otherwise, and I'm so pleased to have with me Bo Shembechler, the great football coach at the University of Michigan. And then, we also have with us that fine, fine coach of the University of Michigan basketball team, Johnny Orr. Thank you, Johnny. You know, the Ford candidacy has got the kind of momentum that the University of Michigan football team had last year and the kind of momentum that the Michigan basketball team had. We're going to keep going, but with all apologies we're going to win the final one November 2, too.
** Gerald Ford, Remarks in Battle Creek, 15 May 1976

### G

* One after another, countries such as Spain and Greece, states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Kansas, and American colonies such as Puerto Rico-are becoming laboratories for how much pain can be inflicted on a population for the purpose of satisfying creditors and ideologues.
** Amy Goodman Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (2016)

### H

* I'm actually forced to write about Michigan, because as a native of the state it's the place I know best.
** Jim Harrison, American Poet (2007)

### I

* The Steve Tennes case in Michigan is an interesting example of how anti-discrimination statutes may end up creating discrimination. Courts are faced with difficult choices, but in this case ruled in favor of religious liberty. …It was a classic case where two rights conflicted, religious liberty and the right of same-sex couples not to be discriminated. …In the East Lansing case, the city had modified a regulation to target one particular vendor, and one who managed its operations quietly according to his faith rather than engaging in rabid anti-LGBT preaching.
** Massimo Introvigne, "A Fruity Settlement: After Court Ruling, East Lansing Withdraws Ban Against Catholic Farmer", Bitter Winter (December 22, 2023)

### J

* But this is not nearly so important as the fact that this city and its people are the herald of hope in America. Prosperity in America must begin here in Detroit. You folks in Detroit put American citizens on wheels; you have American economy on the move. Unemployment in Detroit is down, profits are up, wages are good, and there is no problem too tough or too challenging for us to solve. With your Federal Government working with the people of this Nation we are going to make a better, a more peaceful, and a more prosperous life not only for the people of Detroit and Michigan but for all Americans and all the world All this makes me feel mighty good, and it should make the Nation feel good. My cup runneth over here when men come here to greet me like Gus Scholle and Henry Ford. When the President has Gus and Henry by his side, the sky is the limit. And the sky is bright today. My favorite uncle came to Michigan in 1915, some 40 years ago, to get a degree from Ann Arbor. I am on my way back there to get an honorary one today, which only proves that if you wait 40 years, a graduate of Southwest Texas State Teachers College can finally make good.
** Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks Upon Arrival at Metropolitan Airport in Detroit, 22 May 1963

### K

* Michigan, which is a great industrial State in this country, I believe has its best years ahead. And I come here tonight to ask your help in electing the kind of men who believe in moving this country forward.
** John F. Kennedy, Remarks Upon Arrival at Metropolitan Airport, Detroit, 5 October 1962

### L

* We’re in the midst of an historic ice storm, one that we have not seen in Michigan for over 50 years.
** Trevor Lauer, president of DTE subsidiary DTE Electric according to More than 700,000 without power in Michigan after ice storm as California faces threat of blizzards (Feb. 23, 2023)

### M

* Is there a Republican Party in Michigan right now?
** Rachel Maddow on MSNBC (January 8, 2024)
* I'm going to Michigan to see the sweetest gal in Kalamazoo.
** Glenn Miller, "Kalamazoo" (1942), by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, RCA Bluebird
* Yes, on November 8, you Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system because it's your right. Trump's election is going to be the biggest "fuck you" ever recorded in human history and it will feel good — for a day. Maybe a week. Possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, Michiganders, and Wisconsinites of Middle England, right, they all voted to leave and now they regret it. And over 4 million of them signed a petition to have a do-over, they want another election, but it's not going to happen. Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you're fucked. And the rest of Europe. They're like, "Bye Felicia!" So when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that President Trump wasn't going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it.
** Michael Moore, Michael Moore in TrumpLand (October 7, 2016)

### N

* Prior to and separate from the current water crisis, Flint was in a state of financial ruination. In one of the most liberal cities in the United States, Flint's Democrat-dominated government did what Democrat-monopoly governments do in practically every city they control. It spent money as quickly as it could while at the same time carpet-bombing the tax base with inept municipal services, onerous regulations, high taxes, and the like. As a result of this, a bankrupt Flint entered into a state of receivership, meaning that an emergency manager — or emergency financial manager, depending upon Michigan’s fluctuating fiscal-emergency law — was appointed by state authorities and given power to supersede local elected officials in some matters, especially financial ones. The contamination happened while Flint was under the authority of an emergency manager who, though a Democrat, had been appointed to the post by Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder. He was, in fact, the most recent in a long line of emergency managers, Flint having failed for years to emerge from its state of fiscal emergency.
** National Review, "Flint Is Not A Republican Scandal" (20 January 2016)
* And the first point that I want to make is this: I know this area very well; I know how Saginaw and Bay City depend so much, for example, on what happens to the automobile industry across this country. I realize that as automobile sales go down for whatever reason, that that means jobs go down here and in this whole area, as well as in the State of Michigan. And I have in this respect some good news for you, but also I have a request to make of you in terms of what we need in order to get automobile sales up, automobile production up, and employment up in the Saginaw-Bay City area. That is our goal. As all of you know, what has caused the problem with regard to automobile sales has been the energy shortage. And because of that energy shortage, the sale of cars, particularly some of the larger cars, has gone down. That has now been reversed to an extent. However, we need to do more, but there is a bottleneck. The bottleneck is in the Congress of the United States. The bottleneck is the fact that bills that we have presented to the Congress, bills that are supported by Senator Griffin, bills that are supported by Al Cederberg and others from your delegation here in Michigan, 17 of them are there in the Congress and haven't been acted upon.
** Richard Nixon, Remarks in Saginaw County, Michigan, 10 April 1973

### O

* We had to stabilize the financial system, which, given the role of the big banks in creating this mess, was a pretty tough pill to swallow. I knew it would be unpopular -- and rightly so. But I also knew that we had to do it because if they went down, your local banks would have gone down. And if the financial system went down, it would have taken the entire economy and millions more families and businesses with it. We would have looked -- we would have been looking at a second Great Depression. So in my first months in office, we also had to save two of the big three automakers from a liquidation bankruptcy, complete collapse. Some people weren't happy about that, either. I understand that. They felt like if you're in a business, you make a bad decision, you ought to reap the consequences, just like any business would. The problem was, if we let GM and Chrysler simply go under, hundreds of thousands of Americans would have been hurt, not just at those companies themselves, but at auto suppliers and other companies and dealers here in Michigan, up in -- here in Ohio, up in Michigan, all across this country.
** Barack Obama, Town Hall Address at Lorain County Community College, delivered 22 January 2010, Elyria, Ohio
* So the people in Flint, and across Michigan, and around the country -- individuals and church groups and non-for-profits and community organizations -- you've proven that the American people will step up when required. And our volunteers, our non-for-profits, they're the lifeblood of our communities. We so appreciate what you do. But volunteers don't build county water systems and keep lead from leaching into our drinking glasses. We can't rely on faith groups to reinforce bridges and repave runways at the airport. We can't ask second-graders, even ones as patriotic as Isiah Britt who raised all that money, to raise enough money to keep our kids healthy. You hear a lot about government overreach, how Obama -- he's for big government. Listen, it's not government overreach to say that our government is responsible for making sure you can wash your hands in your own sink, or shower in your own home, or cook for your family. These are the most basic services. There is no more basic element sustaining human life than water. It's not too much to expect for all Americans that their water is going to be safe.
** Barack Obama, Speech to Community of Flint, Michigan, 4 May 2016

### P

* The Democratic nominee for President supports plans to raise income taxes, and raise payroll taxes, and raise investment income taxes, and raise the death tax, and raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. My sister Heather and her husband, they just built a service station that's now opened for business -- like millions of others who run small businesses. How are they -- how are they going to be better off if taxes go up? Or maybe you are trying to keep your job at a plant in Michigan or in Ohio, or you’re trying -- you’re trying to create jobs from clean coal from Pennsylvania or West Virginia, or you’re trying to keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota. How are you -- how are you going to be better off if our opponent adds a massive tax burden to the American economy?
** Sarah Palin, Republican Vice Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 3 September 2008, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota

### R

* Well, it's good to be back in the great State of Michigan, and it's great to be in the Tri-City area. You know, being a native midwesterner, I'm always happy when I come to this part of the country—maybe because you make me feel at home. But you in Michigan champion the bedrock values on which our country was built—belief in God, love of family, neighborhood, and good, hard work. Here are steadiness of purpose and strength of patriotism. My opponent may take a negative view of America, but he'd better not try to peddle his doom and gloom in Michigan.
** Ronald Reagan, Remarks at a Reagan-Bush Rally in Saginaw, Michigan, 2 November 1984
* My dad had been born in Mexico and his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution. I grew up with stories of his family being fed by the U.S. Government as war refugees. My dad never made it through college and he apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. He had big dreams. He convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up Hollywood to marry him. They moved to Detroit. He led a great -- He led a great automobile company and became Governor of the Great State of Michigan. We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan that might have seemed unusual or out of place, but I really don’t remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to. My mom and dad gave their kids the -- the greatest gift of all: the gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would be, and much less about what we would do.
** Mitt Romney, Republican Party Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, 30 August 2012,
* I have, for quite a long while, been interested in one particular housing program that is very much needed outside the city of Detroit. Out there they have got this new Willow Run bomber plant in Ypsilanti. When it is going full speed, it will probably use 75 to 100 thousand people in it. And there is not enough housing in that area. This is perhaps illustrative of some of the things that are, on a smaller scale, the same kind of problem. And they have been talking two months about meeting some of them. The trouble is that this area includes probably half a dozen communities and three separate counties, and the State of Michigan, and various agencies of the Federal Government. And when you get a situation like that, there is only one thing to do and that is to tie it together under somebody.
** Franklin D. Roosevelt, Excerpts from the Press Conference, 10 February 1942
* I speak in the presence not only of the men who fought in the Spanish War and in the Philippine War, which was its aftermath, but in the presence of the veterans who fought in the great war; and, more than that, I speak here in a typical city of the old Northwest, of what is now the Middle West, in a typical State of our Union. You men of Michigan have been mighty in war and mighty in peace. You belong to a country mighty in war and mighty in peace—a country of a great past, whose great present is but an earnest of an even greater future. The world has never seen more marvelous prosperity than that which we now enjoy, and this prosperity is not ephemeral. We shall have our ups and downs. The wave at times will recede, but the tide will go steadily higher. This country has never yet been called upon to meet a crisis in war or a crisis in peace to which it did not eventually prove equal, and, decade by decade, its power grows greater and the likelihood of its meeting successfully any crisis becomes even more assured. I preach the gospel of hope to you men of the West, who in thought and life embody this gospel of hope, this gospel of resolute and confident belief in your own powers and in the destiny of this mighty Republic.
** Theodore Roosevelt, Remarks in Detroit, Michigan, 22 September 1902
* Mitt Romney and I both grew up in the heartland, and we know what places like Wisconsin and Michigan look like when times are good. We know what these communities look like when times are good -- when people are working, when families are doing more than just getting by. And we both know it can be that way again.
** Paul Ryan, Republican National Convention VP Nomination Acceptance, delivered 29 August 2012, Tampa, Florida

### S

* This troubling incident could have occurred under any number of tyrannies where the bedrock American ideals of freedom [of] thought and speech have no foothold whatsoever. But this incident happened right here in the United States, just last year, at a public college [Kellogg Community College] in Battle Creek, Michigan. A state official actually had students jailed for handing out copies of the United States Constitution. Freedom of thought and speech on [the] American campus are under attack. The American university was once the center of academic freedom -- a place of robust debate, a forum for the competition of ideas. But it is transforming into an echo chamber of political correctness and homogeneous thought, a shelter for fragile egos.
** Jeff Sessions, The Importance of Free Speech on College Campuses, delivered 26 September 2017, Georgetown, University, Washington, D.C.

### T

* I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this hearty welcome, and for this wonderful turnout. I want to say to you again that I do appreciate most highly the courtesies of your Governor to the President of the United States. I appreciate the courtesies of all the Michiganders. They have been exceedingly kind to me in times past. I was here when I was running for Vice President of the United States in 1944. I did not stop at Lansing, but I was a speaker on the Labor Day program in 1944, and they estimated that there were 130,000 people out in Cadillac Square that day. I am told that if the sky doesn't leak this morning, there will be 300,000 here today.
** Harry S. Truman, Remarks in Lansing, 6 September 1948
* As President, I have one obligation, and that obligation is to the American people. The Paris Accord would undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose unacceptable legal risks, and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world. It is time to exit the Paris Accord and time to pursue a new deal that protects the environment, our companies, our citizens, and our country. It is time to put Youngstown, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- along with many, many other locations within our great country -- before Paris, France. It is time to make America great again.
** Donald Trump, Paris Climate Accord Address, delivered 1 June 2017, Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C.
* Another historic trade blunder was the catastrophe known as NAFTA. I have met the men and women of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, and many other states whose dreams were shattered by the signing of NAFTA. For years, politicians promised them they would renegotiate for a better deal, but no one ever tried, until now. Our new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the USMCA, will replace NAFTA and deliver for American workers like they haven’t had delivered to for a long time. I hope you can pass the USMCA into law so that we can bring back our manufacturing jobs in even greater numbers, expand American agriculture, protect intellectual property, and ensure that more cars are proudly stamped with our four beautiful words: “Made in the USA.”
** Donald Trump, 2019 State of the Union Address, delivered 5 February 2019, Washington, D.C.

### V

* Canada - they won't like me saying this, but it's really like it's a part of Michigan, that area.
** John Varvatos

### W

* These ideas that they’re putting out there, they are weird as hell. No one’s asking for it. No one’s asking for it. We’re asking [for] a fair shot. We’re asking for health care and child care. We’re asking for an education. We’re asking for safety in our streets.
** Tim Walz according to 'I am speaking now': Harris responds after Michigan rally interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters (Aug. 7, 2024)
*** Regarding the Israel–Hamas war protests during the first Harris election rally in 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. Let’s show the rest of the country how to solve America’s literacy crisis, and show them what good government actually looks like.
** Gretchen Whitmer, Quoted in "5 things Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in her inaugural address". Detroit Free Press. (January 1, 2019).
* 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. The story of the Mackinac Bridge reminds us that we can do great things when we work together.
** Gretchen Whitmer, Quoted in "5 things Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in her inaugural address". Detroit Free Press. (January 1, 2019).
* Michiganders are no different from Americans everywhere. We love our families and want a good life today and a better life tomorrow for our kids. We work hard and we expect our government to work hard for us as well. We have grit and value loyalty, and we still root for the Detroit Lions.
** Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic Party Response to President Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address, 4 February 2020

## External links

* Official website