Democratic congressional leaders’ choice of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to deliver their response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address signals the party is likely to continue the message it rode to victory in 2018 elections across the country.

Whitmer, who won an open race in 2018 by almost 10 percentage points, represents the type of successful candidate Democrats ran in congressional and statewide races that year: a relatively moderate woman who won in an evenly divided state by focusing on issues like health care, education and infrastructure.

Her selection likely shows that Democrats would like to push those issues, against the backdrop of a president involved in a partisan impeachment process, to win back states in the industrial Midwest that will be crucial to winning the Electoral College.