Wash­ing­ton Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee has decid­ed against seek­ing a fourth term and will be leav­ing the state’s high­est office in Jan­u­ary 2025 when his cur­rent term expires, his office announced today in a state­ment cir­cu­lat­ed to its press list.

“Serv­ing the peo­ple as gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton state has been my great­est hon­or,” said Inslee. “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 is only the sec­ond gov­er­nor in Wash­ing­ton his­to­ry to serve three con­sec­u­tive terms, after the leg­endary Repub­li­can Dan Evans, who is also the old­est liv­ing for­mer gov­er­nor still with us. (Evans has out­lived four suc­ces­sors: Dixy Lee Ray, John Spell­man, Booth Gard­ner, and Mike Lowry.)

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee deliv­ers the 2023 State of the State Address before a joint ses­sion of the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

First elect­ed in 2012, Inslee has led Wash­ing­ton through some tur­bu­lent times, includ­ing the Rod­ney Tom error, which began about when his first term did in 2012, the Trump error, which began when his sec­ond term did in 2017, and the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, which hit as he was run­ning for a third term in 2020.

Rod­ney Tom, a Repub­li­can-turned-Demo­c­rat-turned-Repub­li­can again, was an ear­ly thorn in Inslee’s side, and con­spired with Repub­li­cans and anoth­er turn­coat named Tim Shel­don to flip the Sen­ate to Repub­li­can con­trol just as Inslee was prepar­ing to take office. How­ev­er, Tom retired in 2014, and a 2018 come­back bid end­ed in an embar­rass­ing fail­ure. Shel­don stuck around for a cou­ple more terms, but he’s gone now, too. Inslee has out­last­ed both of them.

The gov­er­nor’s list of accom­plish­ments is long, and his team pro­vid­ed a selec­tion of those accom­plish­ments in today’s state­ment, high­light­ing what they see as the biggest wins Inslee has deliv­ered for the peo­ple of the State of Washington.

Notably not includ­ed in the list is Wash­ing­ton’s new cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy, which we’d put at the top. Inslee first called for such a tax to be levied at the end of 2014 as he laid out his pro­posed bud­get for the 2015 Leg­is­la­ture, which had a Demo­c­ra­t­ic House and Repub­li­can Senate.

It took six years for the Leg­is­la­ture to answer the call, but it final­ly did in 2021, after Democ­rats had built robust majori­ties in each cham­ber, with the pas­sage of ESSB 5096. The tax has with­stood bal­lot mea­sure threats and a legal chal­lenge, and is now being col­lect­ed. It is the biggest pro­gres­sive tax reform mea­sure in recent his­to­ry — sore­ly need­ed and fierce­ly opposed by Republicans.

The rev­enue from the tax is devot­ed to the Edu­ca­tion Lega­cy Trust and allo­cat­ed to ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion and child­care. How­ev­er, Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic schools remain under­fund­ed. Many school dis­tricts are grap­pling with big bud­get deficits right now and impos­ing harm­ful cuts due to a lack of sup­port from the state.

On eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty, the Gov­er­nor request­ed and signed into law a paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave pro­gram, which even earned Repub­li­can sup­port. It has been a huge suc­cess. The gov­er­nor and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leg­is­la­ture also final­ly got the Work­ing Fam­i­lies Tax Cred­it fund­ed — an impor­tant vic­to­ry that both improves eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty and bal­ances our tax code a bit more.

Pret­ty much all of the progress Wash­ing­ton has made on gun safe­ty has come under Inslee. After a series of three Alliance for Gun Respon­si­bil­i­ty ini­tia­tives passed at the bal­lot (in 2014, 2016, and 2018), the Leg­is­la­ture belat­ed­ly began tak­ing up the cause. It has now sent Inslee many gun safe­ty bills to sign.

Wash­ing­ton has banned bump stocks, ghost guns, high capac­i­ty mag­a­zines, and most recent­ly assault weapons. It has pro­hib­it­ed the car­ry­ing of firearms at the state Capi­tol and the car­ry­ing of firearms at local gov­ern­ment meet­ings and elec­tion sites. A ten-day wait­ing peri­od is slat­ed to go into effect soon, and gun man­u­fac­tur­ers will be required to exer­cise rea­son­able con­trols in their busi­ness­es under a new account­abil­i­ty law that just got signed.

On human rights, Gov­er­nor Inslee placed a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty ear­ly on dur­ing his tenure and more recent­ly signed a bill get­ting rid of the death penal­ty after the Supreme Court has struck its use down as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and con­vert­ed all death sen­tences to life sentences.

On repro­duc­tive jus­tice, the state has stood firm against the Supreme Court’s hor­rif­ic Dobbs deci­sion. Gov­er­nor Inslee has vocal­ly and emphat­i­cal­ly defend­ed access to abor­tion care and signed laws to pro­tect patients and clin­ics, espe­cial­ly from puni­tive dra­con­ian laws passed in Repub­li­can-con­trolled states.

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee speaks at the sign­ing of five land­mark envi­ron­men­tal bills (Pho­to: Andrew Villeneuve/Northwest Pro­gres­sive Institute)

On cli­mate jus­tice, the Gov­er­nor has a record sec­ond to none in the coun­try. Inslee has signed into law a huge num­ber of bills to put Wash­ing­ton on the path to a clean ener­gy econ­o­my, includ­ing the Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act and a one hun­dred per­cent clean elec­tric­i­ty grid bill which our own Gael Tar­leton led on.

And, very impor­tant­ly, Inslee has been unafraid to stand up to dis­hon­est ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman. His Demo­c­ra­t­ic pre­de­ces­sors Gary Locke and Chris Gre­goire had each capit­u­lat­ed to Eyman, urg­ing the Leg­is­la­ture to rein­state harm­ful tax-slash­ing ini­tia­tives after the Supreme Court had struck them down.

Inslee did­n’t capit­u­late — not after I‑1366 passed in 2016 or after I‑1976 passed in 2019. He stood up for Wash­ing­ton’s com­mon wealth. As a con­se­quence, bil­lions of dol­lars in fund­ing for essen­tial pub­lic ser­vices were saved, and Wash­ing­ton turned away from repeat­ing some of the mis­takes of the ear­ly 2000s.

Inslee has also signed into law bills to rid our bal­lots of Eyman’s push polls and ensure that any future right wing tax cut­ting ini­tia­tives that qual­i­fy for the bal­lot will appear with a dis­clo­sure that explains what they would defund if passed.

Inslee pre­vailed over three Repub­li­cans to win the state’s top office three times, each by a mar­gin greater than his pre­vi­ous vic­to­ry. He defeat­ed Rob McKen­na in 2012, Bill Bryant in 2016, and Loren Culp in 2020. Those vic­to­ries coin­cid­ed with a minor polit­i­cal realign­ment in the state that has turned Wash­ing­ton into a strong Demo­c­ra­t­ic tri­fec­ta, with Repub­li­cans out of pow­er and often out of the picture.

Polit­i­cal­ly, dur­ing Inslee’s gov­er­nor­ship, Democ­rats have:

• Main­tained a major­i­ty in the state House of Representatives
• Won a major­i­ty in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate after years of try­ing, thanks to North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber Man­ka Dhin­gra’s spe­cial elec­tion vic­to­ry, and then expand­ed that majority
• Lost and regained the office of State Treasurer
• Gained the office of Sec­re­tary of State
• Flipped two seats Demo­c­ra­t­ic in the U.S. House (in the 8th CD and 3rd CD)
• Reelect­ed both U.S. Sen­a­tors (Maria Cantwell in 2018, Pat­ty Mur­ray last year)

Before becom­ing gov­er­nor, Inslee was a Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the 1st (1999–2012) and 4th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­tricts (1993–1995). Before that, he was a state leg­is­la­tor, serv­ing in the Wash­ing­ton State House from 1989–1993.

NPI con­grat­u­lates Gov­er­nor Inslee for a great run as Wash­ing­ton State’s chief exec­u­tive. We look for­ward to work­ing with him to get even more great pol­i­cy signed into law next year as he wraps up this chap­ter of his pub­lic service.

The gov­er­nor’s full announce­ment is below:

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee announced today he does not plan to seek a fourth term. Inslee was most recent­ly re-elect­ed in 2020, mak­ing him only the sec­ond Wash­ing­ton state gov­er­nor to serve three con­sec­u­tive terms.

“Serv­ing the peo­ple as gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton state has been my great­est hon­or. Dur­ing a decade of dynam­ic change, we’ve made Wash­ing­ton a bea­con for progress for the nation. I’m ready to pass the torch.

“Our last decade of Washington’s sto­ried his­to­ry is one of growth and inno­va­tion. I am proud to have played a role in our state’s lead­er­ship on so many fronts. We’ve passed the nation’s best cli­mate poli­cies, the most suc­cess­ful fam­i­ly leave ben­e­fits, the best col­lege schol­ar­ship pro­grams, a more fair legal jus­tice sys­tem, and the most pro­tec­tive actions against gun vio­lence. We’ve shown that diver­si­ty is a strength worth fight­ing for. This has been ten years of dynam­ic success.

“As gov­er­nor, I have seen my role as inspir­ing our state ever for­ward and ever high­er. I’m grat­i­fied to be able to say that this approach has worked to improve Wash­ing­to­ni­ans lives in many ways and many places.

“Now is the time to intense­ly focus on all we can accom­plish in the next year and a half, and I intend to do just that. I look for­ward to con­tin­ued part­ner­ship with leg­is­la­tors and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers to address Washington’s home­less­ness cri­sis, speed our efforts to expand behav­ioral health ser­vices, con­tin­ue our fight against cli­mate change, and con­tin­ue mak­ing Wash­ing­ton a bea­con of progress for all.”

High­light­ed achieve­ments since 2013:

• Pass­ing nation-lead­ing cli­mate poli­cies to dri­ve down emis­sions and invest more equi­tably in over­bur­dened communities.
• Estab­lish­ing the state’s Clean Ener­gy Fund to pro­mote devel­op­ment and deploy­ment of clean ener­gy technologies.
• Pass­ing the Clean Ener­gy Trans­for­ma­tion Act to achieve 100% clean pow­er by 2045; Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act to estab­lish a cap-and invest pro­gram with strong equi­ty pro­vi­sions; clean build­ings poli­cies to reduce emis­sions in homes and offices; and clean fuels and clean trans­porta­tion poli­cies to elec­tri­fy the state’s fer­ries and pro­mote elec­tric vehicles.
• Estab­lish­ing Wash­ing­ton state as a sub-nation­al leader on cli­mate by co-found­ing the U.S. Cli­mate Alliance, Ocean Acid­i­fi­ca­tion Alliance, and Amer­i­ca is All In, and help­ing lead the Pacif­ic Coast Col­lab­o­ra­tive and Under2 Coalition.
  Improv­ing equi­ty across Washington’s legal jus­tice system.
• Pri­or­i­tiz­ing more diverse judi­cial appointments.
• Estab­lish­ing a Mar­i­jua­na Jus­tice Ini­tia­tive to clear mis­de­meanor con­vic­tion records.
• Plac­ing a mora­to­ri­um on Washington’s death penal­ty – a posi­tion that was ulti­mate­ly affirmed by the state Supreme Court due to its unequal and racial­ly biased appli­ca­tion, and sub­se­quent­ly struck from state law.
• Estab­lish­ing a statewide effort to improve reen­try ser­vices for peo­ple tran­si­tion­ing from incar­cer­a­tion into the community.
• Pro­mot­ing poli­cies that con­sis­tent­ly rank Wash­ing­ton among the best states for busi­ness and for work­ers, thanks to the state’s strong econ­o­my and work­force as well as pro­grams for work­ing fam­i­lies such as paid fam­i­ly leave, a high min­i­mum wage, and the new Work­ing Fam­i­lies Tax Credit.
• Tak­ing deci­sive mea­sures to pro­tect the health and safe­ty of Wash­ing­to­ni­ans dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, result­ing in one of the low­est death rates in the country.
• Ful­ly fund­ing Washington’s K‑12 edu­ca­tion sys­tem for the first time in over a decade as deter­mined by the McCleary case, and expand­ing finan­cial aid to make Washington’s pro­gram among the most gen­er­ous in the nation.
• Enact­ing the nation’s most gen­er­ous paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave pro­gram, offer­ing up to 16 weeks of paid leave for every work­ing Washingtonian.
• Pro­vid­ing more afford­able health care options to all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans by mak­ing Wash­ing­ton one of the 10 lead­ing states for ful­ly imple­ment­ing the Afford­able Care Act and expand­ing eli­gi­bil­i­ty for Med­ic­aid. Inslee con­tin­ues to pro­mote poli­cies to strength­en access to health care such as requir­ing insur­ers to cov­er peo­ple with pre-exist­ing con­di­tions, cre­at­ing a low-cost “pub­lic option” style insur­ance plan known as Cas­cade Care, and cap­ping insulin costs to $35 per month.
• Help­ing to estab­lish Wash­ing­ton as a leader in gun vio­lence pre­ven­tion by ban­ning bump stocks, high capac­i­ty mag­a­zines, “ghost guns,” and assault weapons sales, as well as requir­ing safe­ty train­ing and a 10-day wait­ing peri­od pri­or to pur­chase and enhanc­ing account­abil­i­ty for man­u­fac­tur­ers and retailers.
• Push­ing back on Repub­li­can efforts to roll back abor­tion rights and gen­der-affirm­ing care by strength­en­ing legal pro­tec­tions for providers and patients and expand­ing access.
• Pro­mot­ing diver­si­ty and belong­ing as one of Washington’s strengths by wel­com­ing refugees from Syr­ia, Afghanistan and Ukraine; hold­ing the first-ever rais­ing of the June­teenth and Pride flags at the Capi­tol; and estab­lish­ing a new statewide Office of Equi­ty, as well as a new LGBTQ Com­mis­sion and Women’s Commission.

Again, our con­grat­u­la­tions and thanks to Gov­er­nor Inslee. We have enjoyed work­ing with the Gov­er­nor and appre­ci­ate his stead­fast leadership.