By NEIL THANEDAR

MICHIGAN CAMPAIGN FINANCE NETWORK

LANSING, MI (April 11, 2025) — Despite claims from Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt that Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s 2025 trade missions are “taxpayer funded trips”, an investigation by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN) has found that these trips were actually funded via private dark money donations.

The costs for the Governor's February 2025 trade missions to Bahrain and UAE and March 2025 trade missions to the UK and Ireland appear to be paid or reimbursed by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) through a special fund led by private corporate donors.

Otie McKinley, spokesman for MEDC, said “no tax-payer dollars are used for the Governor’s international trade missions. These missions are funded through private and non-public donations to support these critically important missions to drive employment and economic growth to Michigan. It is not uncommon for partners to join these missions, in which case expenses that are incurred by these representatives are not covered by MEDC.”

“This is a very common practice for states across the country, and international travel missions have been part of Michigan’s overall attraction efforts for decades, regardless of whether there is a Republican or Democrat in the Governor’s office.”

MEDC did not disclose the costs of these trips, the names of these donors, or identify which donors traveled with the Governor on any of these trips. But the statement implies that business representatives do travel with Whitmer at their companies' expense.

Gov. Whitmer, who spent about one-fourth of 2024 outside of Michigan, has now traveled overseas for trade missions in back-to-back months in 2025 in addition to traveling to New York, Washington DC, Indiana, and Arizona (with trips already planned to California and Pennsylvania) to promote a young adult edition of her book True Gretch.

While MEDC’s stated purpose for these trade missions is “advancing job creation and economic growth”, the state’s jobs record has struggled during Whitmer’s tenure. Michigan has lost 27,600 manufacturing jobs since Whitmer became governor on January 1, 2019. Only two much larger states, California and New York, lost more manufacturing jobs during this period. Michigan actually added 151,300 manufacturing jobs during previous governor Rick Synder’s eight years in office.

Whitmer’s office didn’t respond Tuesday through Friday to emails or calls from MCFN requesting comment on who paid for these trade missions or book tours. However, her office’s official statement on March 23 stated that the trade mission to the UK and Ireland was supported by the “Michigan Economic Development Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit organization.”

Donors to the MEDF include GM and Ford, two top recipients of hundreds of millions of dollars in state government incentives during Whitmer’s two terms as governor, and Japanese companies like Aisin, Denso, and Toyota, who are prohibited from making political contributions in the United States. Whitmer and her team took a trade mission to Japan in September 2023, spending $285,709 on the 7-day trip.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) states that “Federal law prohibits contributions, donations, expenditures (including independent expenditures)… directly or indirectly by or from foreign nationals in connection with any federal, state or local election… Foreign nationals are also prohibited from, directly or indirectly, donating to an inaugural committee.”

Whitmer was previously scrutinized in 2021 for using her inaugural committee, Michigan Transition 2019, to pay to charter a private jet for her and her family to visit her father in Florida. Whitmer later personally paid $855 for her seat on the flight, which cost $27,521, as first reported by MIRS.

On March 27, Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers) introduced House Bill 4310 to require legislative approval by both the Michigan House and Senate for the Governor to travel overseas and use taxpayer funding for these trips. This bill has not left committee in the House and has little to no chance of passing the Senate. On March 28, Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare), also introduced a resolution offering a sarcastic “special tribute” for the “Governor’s Tireless Commitment to International Visits and Frequent Flyer Programs”. This resolution has no actual enforcement ability over the governor.

Article 5, Section 26 of the Michigan Constitution states that if the “governor is absent from the state”, “the powers and duties of the office of the governor shall devolve in order of precedence” to the lieutenant governor, currently Garlin Gilchrist II, who is now also a candidate for Governor. This frequent usage of Gilchrist as acting governor has led Michigan Republicans to repeatedly label Gretchen Whitmer as a “part-time governor”.

MCFN is still investigating the identity of these private donors and costs of these 2025 trips.

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