How Many U.S. Presidents Have Come from Michigan?

Well, none, really, unless you count Gerald Ford, who actually was born in Omaha, Neb. We’ve had our share of contenders, though — even if you’ve never heard of them

(page 2 of 2)

Gerald Ford

Thomas E. Dewey 

Thomas Dewey holds a number of unique distinctions in the history of presidential politics. Mostly he is remembered for being on the wrong end of the biggest upset in political history, as in the infamously wrong Chicago Tribune headline, DEWEY DE- FEATS TRUMAN.

But Dewey was also the most politically famous son of Michigan. Trouble was, almost nobody knew he was from the Great Lakes State. He was also the youngest man ever to be nominated by the Republicans, and managed to have careers as a singer, an anti-mob prosecutor, a three-term governor, and a washed-up, two-time presidential election loser — all before he was 47 years old. In 1948, he managed to lose a race that everyone thought he would win, in large part by boring everyone to death.

But he seemed to stay a cheerful good sport about it. He grew up in Owosso and went to the University of Michigan, where he spent a lot of time, not in student government, but working on The Michigan Daily and singing.

He won a statewide singing contest (he liked opera, and was a baritone) and nearly tried for an operatic career.

But he worried what would happen if his vocal cords went out on him, and so he went off to Columbia to study law. Some accounts say he really did so in the hopes of getting to the Metropolitan Opera.

However, his most recent biographer, Richard Norton Smith, said Dewey found Ann Arbor stone boring. His legal career took off fast, and he became known as the fighting district attorney who put away mobsters Lucky Luciano and Waxey Gordon. That led to the GOP presidential nomination in 1944. Nobody really expected him to beat Franklin D. Roosevelt during a world war, and he didn’t. But he made a good enough showing to merit another try four years later.

Nobody thought Dewey would have any problem beating Harry Truman. So he ran the most safely boring campaign imaginable. The delightfully nasty Alice Roosevelt Longworth said he looked like “the little man on the wedding cake.” And he did — exactly. Maybe partly as a result of that, he lost again, though he did carry Michigan. Dewey was gracious, and went on to become sort of a young elder statesman of the moderate wing of the GOP, dying of a sudden heart attack in 1971.

If he ever sneaked back to Owosso, history does not record it.

The Romneys

Gov. George Romney seemed a shoo-in for the Republican nomination in 1968, until he told local TV interviewer Lou Gordon that he “just had the greatest brainwashing” by the generals in Vietnam. “I would have thought a light rinse would have done it,” quipped Democratic candidate Eugene McCarthy.

Oops. Ouch. Game over.

Forty years later, in 2008, his son Mitt gave it a whirl. Like his father, he was 60 when he ran. They were very much alike. Except that, unlike his father, Mitt was born in Michigan. And while the elder Romney lived in and was governor of Michigan, Mitt lived in and had been governor of Massachusetts. Nobody ever said Mitt had been brainwashed. On the other hand, nobody ever said they were sure what he stood for.

Oops. Ouch. Game over.

Gerald R. Ford

Long after he left the White House, President Gerald Ford said in an interview (with this writer) that he knew he probably would lose the 1976 election when he pardoned Richard Nixon. He was right. Today, most historians and even onetime foes such as U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy agree that the pardon was the right thing to do.

His road to the presidency was the oddest in American history. When Vice President Spiro Agnew turned out to be a crook, Nixon tapped Ford — then the well-liked House minority leader — to be vice president.

When Nixon turned out to be a liar and a crook and had to resign, Ford became president. His administration is remembered for the Nixon pardon, the end of the Vietnam War, and those silly “Whip Inflation Now” buttons. (Bonus question: Whom did Ford appoint as his vice president? See below.)

When President Jimmy Carter was sworn in, the first thing he did was thank President Ford “for all you have done to heal this land.”

Well, those guys are the closest our state has ever come to actually electing a president. And it doesn’t seem likely that any of our current politicians are apt to run anytime soon.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm was born a Canadian and so is not eligible. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin is too old. U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow doesn’t have the clout. There are no “mentionable” Republicans (unless Mitt Romney gets another bite at the apple).

But don’t lose hope. This doesn’t mean we’ll never have a president who can find Eight Mile Road. It just means we may have to wait until it has been resurfaced — a few more times.

Quiz Answers

Like what you've read? Subscribe to Hour Detroit »