What happened: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D., Mich.) launched a political action committee to raise money for the 2024 election cycle and beyond.
• The Fight Like Hell PAC plans to support President Joe Biden's campaign reelection campaign as well as Democrats running in House and Senate races across the country.
• This will allow Whitmer to "carve out a visible and supportive role in 2024 races," NBC News reports.
Context: Whitmer's announcement comes less than two weeks after Biden, 80, suffered a hard fall at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony in Colorado Springs.
• Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults aged 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Why it matters: Biden, sometimes referred to as "Slippy Joe," probably won't survive his next fall. That's why Whitmer and other Democrats are jockeying to be the one who replaces him as the party's nominee in 2024. Launching a PAC is a crucial first step in terms of positioning oneself to jump into the presidential election on short notice.
• Pete Buttigieg, the embattled secretary of transportation, reactivated his own political action committee ahead of last year's midterm elections. The Win the Era PAC jolted to life in June 2022, several days after Biden fell off a bicycle in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
• No one really wants Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party's nominee in 2024, but a prominent liberal activist group recently announced a multimillion-dollar campaign to bolster her reputation. EMILY's List, the abortion-focused political action committee, will spend "tens of millions of dollars" in 2024 to defend Harris from her many, many, many critics.
Bottom line: Hold on to your butts.