Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says he will not seek fourth term
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Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) announced Monday that he will not seek a fourth term next year, signaling that it was time for someone from a new generation of leaders to take over the office he has held since 2013. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight “Serving the people as governor of Washington state has been my greatest honor,” Inslee, the longest-serving governor in the United States, said in a statement. “During a decade of dynamic change, we’ve made Washington a beacon for progress for the nation. I’m ready to pass the torch.”
Inslee, 72, cited as his top achievements passing “the nation’s best climate policies,” enacting up to 16 weeks of paid family and medical leave for Washingtonians, expanding legal protections for and access to abortion care in Washington in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, and placing a moratorium on the state’s death penalty.
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“We’ve shown that diversity is a strength worth fighting for,” he added. “This has been 10 years of dynamic success.”
Inslee, a lawyer who served in Congress for many years, was first elected governor in 2012, succeeding Democrat Christine Gregoire. During his tenure, Inslee — who has long championed the fight against climate change — established a fund to promote the development of clean-energy technology in Washington, signed a bill into law that sought to achieve 100 percent clean power in the state by 2045, electrified the state’s ferries, and established policies to reduce emissions in homes and offices.
After President Donald Trump took office in 2017, Washington state under Inslee quickly became an epicenter of resistance to Trump’s agenda, largely due to a left-leaning populace, outspoken Democratic lawmakers and legal efforts spearheaded by the attorney general. When Trump announced a ban on refugees from several Muslim-majority countries, Inslee and his team protested at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport two days later.
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“It is religious discrimination in its barest and [most] obvious form,” Inslee said then.
In an exchange that made national headlines at the time, Inslee also called out Trump in person at a 2018 National Governors Association meeting, criticizing his proposal after the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., that some schoolteachers be armed.
“I just suggest we need a little less tweeting here and a little more listening,” Inslee told Trump then. “And let’s just take that off the table and move forward.”
In March 2019, Inslee announced his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, making the climate crisis a centerpiece of his candidacy. Inslee suspended his campaign less than six months later and announced that he would instead run for a third term as governor. Inslee won the 2020 election handily, becoming the first Washington governor to serve a third term since the 1970s.
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Jamal Raad, who has worked closely with Inslee since 2015, including on his presidential and reelection campaigns, described Inslee as one of the few people who is in politics “for the right reasons” and as immensely caring. Raad recalled frantically rewriting Inslee’s victory speech on the night of the election in 2016, when it was becoming clear that Trump would be elected president.
“I was freaked out. Trump winning — it was really scary,” Raad told The Washington Post, recounting riding the elevator with Inslee moments before he was slated to deliver his victory speech at the Westin hotel in downtown Seattle. “And he turns to me and says, ‘Jamal, I know that this is a difficult time, but it makes the work we need to do all the more important.’ The fact that he spent that time to talk me up and offer me a message of hope is just a really good example of who he is.”
Along with several veterans from Inslee’s campaign, Raad later co-founded Evergreen Action, a liberal climate change activist group that he credits with helping shape the climate policies in the Inflation Reduction Act. Inslee’s decades-long fight against climate change will “undoubtedly” remain one of his legacies, Raad said.
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“This is someone who cares deeply about service, and he’s always thinking about how he can serve,” Raad said. “I imagine this decision was actually tough for him, because he really loves being governor of the state of Washington and being able to impact change.”
On Monday, Inslee said he would spend the rest of his final term “intensely” focusing on accomplishing as much as possible, citing the state’s homelessness crisis and climate change as priorities. Last month, he signed legislation that bans the sale of assault weapons, including AR-15s, in Washington state — nearly three decades after he lost his congressional seat in 1994 for voting in favor of a nationwide assault weapons ban.
Inslee’s announcement is likely to set off a competitive race to replace him. The Democratic Governors Association, which Inslee chaired in 2018, vowed Monday that it would work to make sure a Democratic successor to Inslee is elected in 2024.
“Gov. Inslee has been an outstanding leader for the people of Washington and the entire nation over the course of his historic three terms,” the group said in a statement.
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Source: The Washington Post
