Jay Inslee makes it official: He’s running for Governor of Washington State in 2020

Hours after with­draw­ing from the Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial field, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee has announced that he will be a can­di­date for Gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton State in 2020, via an email blast sent out to his list. Here’s the text of that message:

As you know, I join you in being right­ful­ly proud of Wash­ing­ton state and what we have accom­plished together.

It has been a pro­found hon­or to rep­re­sent our state on the nation­al stage in the pres­i­den­tial race. I am grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to have told the coun­try about Wash­ing­ton state’s suc­cess­ful mod­el of pro­gres­sive action we are build­ing together.

We have pro­vid­ed the nation a road map for inno­va­tion, eco­nom­ic growth, and pro­gres­sive action. And we’re not done yet.

I want to con­tin­ue to stand with you in oppos­ing Don­ald Trump and reject­ing his hurt­ful and divi­sive agen­da, while strength­en­ing and enhanc­ing Wash­ing­ton state’s role as a pro­gres­sive bea­con for the nation. Which is why I’m announc­ing today my inten­tion to run for a third term as Wash­ing­ton’s governor.

I’m excit­ed to do so — because our great suc­cess as a state these last few years gives me con­fi­dence that we can con­tin­ue to lead the nation in so many ways. Our mul­ti­ple accom­plish­ments have paved the way for much to come in the next term.

We’ve cre­at­ed the first pub­lic option for health care in the nation, the high­est increase in aver­age pub­lic school teacher pay in the coun­try, and the fastest grow­ing econ­o­my in America.

That’s what we do in Wash­ing­ton — we’re inno­va­tors, builders, cre­ators — and I am eager to build and expand on this unique record of progress and eco­nom­ic suc­cess for the peo­ple of our great state.

Togeth­er, we’ve built an econ­o­my that works for work­ing peo­ple. Wash­ing­ton has raised the min­i­mum wage to one of the high­est in the nation, pro­vid­ed paid sick leave for every work­er, and cre­at­ed a best-in-the-nation paid fam­i­ly leave program.

We were the first state to pro­tect net neu­tral­i­ty, and we have passed the most sweep­ing pack­age of vot­ing rights laws in the nation.

We have pro­tect­ed LGBTQI Amer­i­cans from dis­crim­i­na­tion, pro­vid­ed afford­able health care to over 800,000 Wash­ing­to­ni­ans through Oba­macare, and passed repro­duc­tive par­i­ty pro­tec­tions for all women. We became the first state to sue against Trump’s Mus­lim ban and passed his­toric invest­ments in pub­lic schools, teacher pay, and infrastructure.

We’re also lead­ing the nation in tack­ling the cli­mate cri­sis. Our efforts to pro­tect Wash­ing­ton’s clean air and water, invest in peo­ple’s eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty, and stand up for the val­ues of inclu­siv­i­ty and diver­si­ty have cre­at­ed thou­sands of clean ener­gy jobs and made Wash­ing­ton state “the epi­cen­ter of resis­tance to Trump’s agenda.”

These pro­gres­sive poli­cies have pro­pelled Wash­ing­ton’s econ­o­my to be the best in the nation — and the only state that has been ranked both the best place to work and the best place for business.

Since I became gov­er­nor in 2013, Wash­ing­ton state has ranked num­ber one in both wage growth and GDP growth.

Wash­ing­ton’s sto­ry shows the eco­nom­ic pow­er of pro­gres­sive action.

We’ve made incred­i­ble progress togeth­er, but there’s much more to do. Make no mis­take — we will not be rest­ing on our laurels.

We ful­ly intend for Wash­ing­ton’s future to be every bit as dynam­ic, inno­v­a­tive, and inclu­sive as its past.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Ear­ly to bed, ear­ly to rise, work like hell, and orga­nize. Let’s get to work build­ing an even greater Wash­ing­ton together.

Very tru­ly yours,

Jay

Inslee’s pres­i­den­tial cam­paign web­site has already been tak­en down and replaced with a splash page for his guber­na­to­r­i­al ree­elec­tion campaign.

Repub­li­cans are try­ing their best to pre­tend that they have a legit­i­mate shot at cap­tur­ing the gov­er­nor’s man­sion in 2020, a claim that has no basis in real­i­ty. Repub­li­cans haven’t won a guber­na­to­r­i­al race in the state since 1980, when John Spell­man was elect­ed. It’s the longest guber­na­to­r­i­al los­ing streak in the country.

Even State Repub­li­can Chair Caleb Heim­lich under­stands this.

In a tac­it admis­sion of the extreme­ly long odds Repub­li­cans face in 2020, Heim­lich end­ed a fundrais­ing email by say­ing: “With your dona­tion of $20 today, we can show the truth about Gov­er­nor Inslee and orga­nize in every cor­ner of the state to elect a Repub­li­can Gov­er­nor for the first time in my lifetime!”

Heim­lich and oth­er Repub­li­cans have been very crit­i­cal of Inslee’s pres­i­den­tial cam­paign, repeat­ed­ly dis­miss­ing it as a “van­i­ty run” and whin­ing inces­sant­ly about the cost to tax­pay­ers for Inslee’s State Patrol pro­vid­ed secu­ri­ty detail, while remain­ing qui­et as church­mice about Don­ald Trump’s fail­ure to reim­burse tax­pay­ers for his cam­paign-relat­ed trav­el and his trav­el to his golf courses.

As a pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, how­ev­er, Inslee had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to criss­cross the coun­try pitch­ing Wash­ing­ton State as a great place to live and work.

His pres­i­den­tial run there­fore had val­ue to the tax­pay­ers of Wash­ing­ton State, even if it did­n’t catch fire. There is arguably no bet­ter or more cred­i­ble spokesper­son for a state’s busi­ness cli­mate than its gov­er­nor. Inslee has a com­pelling sto­ry to tell about Wash­ing­ton and he’s been telling it. And, as a can­di­date, he’s also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn what oth­er states are doing on a num­ber of fronts.

That could make him a more effec­tive, knowl­edge­able chief executive.

Inslee’s deci­sion will, as I explained last night, like­ly defer a polit­i­cal realign­ment in state Demo­c­ra­t­ic pol­i­tics until after the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycle is over.

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son, Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands Hilary Franz, and King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine have all con­sis­tent­ly said they would sup­port Inslee in the event he want­ed to seek a third term.

Now he is — so that means their own guber­na­to­r­i­al ambi­tions are on hold.

Franz has actu­al­ly already said as much to the Asso­ci­at­ed Press, not­ing that she’s quite focused on her cur­rent job. As Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands, Franz heads the state’s Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources, which is respon­si­ble for geo­log­ic haz­ards research and fight­ing wild­fires. Franz is in her first term as Com­mis­sion­er and is well posi­tioned to secure reelec­tion in 2020 to a sec­ond term.

Bob Fer­gu­son, mean­while, is in a sim­i­lar boat. He is in his sec­ond term as Attor­ney Gen­er­al and can seek a third term next year, like Chris­tine Gre­goire did in 2000. (Gre­goire served as AG for twelve years before run­ning for Governor.)

“Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee should be proud of his suc­cess pro­mot­ing cli­mate change as an urgent issue demand­ing imme­di­ate action,” said Fer­gu­son in a statement.

“There would not be cli­mate town halls if it were not for Jay Inslee call­ing for a real cli­mate change con­ver­sa­tion. I’ve spo­ken with Wash­ing­to­ni­ans across the state who appre­ci­ate Gov­er­nor Inslee work­ing to high­light Wash­ing­ton state’s lead­er­ship, includ­ing our efforts defend­ing work­ers, enforc­ing civ­il rights, pro­tect­ing our envi­ron­ment, grow­ing our econ­o­my — and our unde­feat­ed record stop­ping the harm­ful poli­cies of Pres­i­dent Trump. I sup­port Gov­er­nor Inslee’s re-elec­tion, and I will pur­sue anoth­er term as Attor­ney General.”

With Franz stay­ing put and Fer­gu­son choos­ing the same path, there won’t be open­ings for Lands Com­mis­sion­er and Attor­ney Gen­er­al in 2020.

That means the “explorato­ry com­mit­tees” of Noah Pur­cell, Drew Hansen, Lore­na Gon­za­lez, and Chris­tine Rolfes will be wind­ing down. All had been pre­pared to seek high­er office had Inslee cho­sen not to run for a third term.

King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine has already been elect­ed to his cur­rent post three times: in 2009, 2013, and 2017. Con­stan­ti­ne’s third term runs through 2021. Giv­en that Con­stan­tine was large­ly unop­posed in his last two reelec­tion bids, he might choose to seek a fourth term after the 2020 pres­i­den­tial cycle ends.

No incum­bent in Wash­ing­ton’s exec­u­tive depart­ment has announced that they will not be a can­di­date for their post in 2020. If any­one does retire, it would prob­a­bly be Insur­ance Com­mis­sion­er Mike Krei­dler, who is clos­ing in on near­ly twen­ty years as the state’s over­seer and reg­u­la­tor of pri­vate insur­ance companies.