Democratic state Senator Gretchen Whitmer was elected by her peers to be the next Senate Minority Leader. She is the first woman chosen to be a leader in the Michigan Senate.
Whitmer says she is happy to lead her caucus, but disappointed there are not more women in the Senate.
"It's important to have representative government, and having women in government making decisions I think is enormously important," she says. "We have gone down from a historic high of 12 women, when I came over here in the special election, to now we will be at 4 women in the upcoming session.
"You know, I think that we're going to pay a price in terms of the quality of public policy."
Whitmer also says she hopes her Senate Republican colleagues will work with her caucus.
"I plan on being an active member of this body and leader of this caucus so that we can problem solve," she says. "That's what we need more than anything, is states-people who are willing to not just look at the immediate solutions, but solutions for 10 years, 20, 40 years down the road what Michigan's going to look like."
There will be 12 Senate Democrats next year. They will work alongside 26 Senate Republicans, a supermajority.
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