Three-term Governor Jay Inslee delivered a State of the State address to a joint session of the Washington State Legislature today for the final time as Washington’s chief executive, reflecting on his many accomplishments in office and pledging to be active until the very end of his tenure.
“This is my eleventh time addressing this chamber, and I have a bigger audience each year,” said Inslee. “There are one million more Washingtonians today than when I took office, because Washington is the place to be. I welcome our new Washingtonians who have seen the genius and promise of our state.”
“The minimum wage was $9 in 2013 and today it’s over $16,” he continued. “Wages overall have grown by 39% — double the national rate. Our GDP has grown 45% – from $528 billion in 2013 to $768 billion today. And we’re among the few states that rank as both a top state for business and for workers.”
“As we contemplate this next year and the work ahead, I think back to my dad, who coached track at Sealth High School,” Inslee reminisced. “He told his runners to imagine the finish line was ten yards beyond the finish line. My father always said, and this is what sticks with me, ‘Fellas, run through the tape!’ so they wouldn’t let up before the race was over. We are going to run through the tape this year. Just as I know you’ll give this state your best work, I’ll give mine.”
Inslee addressed the following topics in the speech:
- The urgent need for climate action
- Radical price transparency for fossil fuels
- Increasing K‑12 education funding
- College financial aid and apprenticeships
- The success of Washington’s paid family and medical leave program
- Access to healthcare
- Providing housing to the homeless
- Gun responsibility and the recent enactment of the assault weapons ban
- Public safety and the fentanyl crisis
- Recruiting more police officers
- Improving behavioral health services
- Helping Washington State Ferries
- Advancing social justice by adopting an equity lens for public policy
- Protecting reproductive rights
- Threats to American democracy
In attendance for the speech — which Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck presided over, as is custom — were the members of the House and Senate, two-thirds of the Washington State Supreme Court, the rest of the executive department (Bob Ferguson, Steve Hobbs, Chris Reykdal, Pat McCarthy, Hilary Franz, Mike Pellicciotti, Mike Kreidler), tribal and local leaders, First Lady Trudi Inslee, and members of the consular corps, with over a dozen nations represented.
Special guests were also present in the galleries, including former Governor Gary Locke, who went on to serve as Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Ambassador to China (and later as the interim president of Bellevue College). However, most of the guests Inslee recognized in his speech are people who could be called ordinary Washingtonians — folks who don’t have name ID or fancy titles.
Inslee asked each of them to stand after telling their stories.
The Washingtonians he named were:
- Elisa Garcia, a farmworker in Toppenish. “Her home was one of 32 in Yakima County that had rooftop solar installed, thanks to a state program specifically geared toward farmworkers,” Inslee told legislators. “Her home now produces 100% of its energy from her own roof. Her family’s energy bills are zero and it would not have been possible without this Legislature. Elisa and her daughter, Jasmin, are here with us today. Thank you, both.”
- Bryan Orihuela of Auburn. Brian “was going to be an engineer, but then he was in a traumatic car accident, followed by high medical bills,” the governor explained. “He had to leave college. Fortunately, he got connected to Computing for All’s pre-apprenticeship program, which this Legislature helped support with Career Connect Washington grants. Now he’s a developer at a mental health app, and Bryan is also here today. Bryan, thank you.”
- Sheena and John Wilson from Mount Vernon. “Sheena’s husband John was diagnosed with cancer,” Inslee relayed. “Sheena expected their health costs would go up to $3,000 a month, until she accessed the benefits of our Cascade Care public option. Her family now pays $108 a month and the most they’ll pay out-of-pocket this year for her husband’s cancer treatment is $2,500 total. John and Sheena are here with us today from Mount Vernon. Thank you both and good luck, too.”
- Starr Draper from Seattle. “This time last year a woman named Starr Draper found herself in a right-of-way encampment at First Avenue and Michigan Street in Seattle,” said Inslee. “No one can live in danger and expect their conditions to improve. No one can be swept from one dark corner to another and expect life to get better. We must lift people up and give them the tools, the services and the power of community necessary to get life on track. State and local collaboration got Starr on her journey to wellness. Starr said this program, quote, ‘renewed my trust.’ She’s got work, she’s got a safe, private place to live, and Starr is here today. Thank you for inspiring us.”
- Claudia Fuentes from Pasco. “We’re joined today by the Pasco Police Department’s own Claudia Fuentes,” said Inslee. “Claudia would not be a police officer today if this Legislature had not invested in more Criminal Justice Training Centers like in Pasco. It was impossible for a parent to spend four and a half months away from home for training in Burien. But because we invested in these training centers, Officer Fuentes got to go home from the academy every night. And because she had this resource, the people of Pasco are safer. Thank you, Claudia.”
- Holle Edwards from the Swinomish tribal community. “We’re going to support people with stories like Holle Edwards, a member of the Swinomish Tribe whose life languished in addiction to meth and heroin before she got help at local resource centers,” said Inslee. “Holle got her life back — and she’s now a recovery counselor helping people on the same journey at a wellness center in Anacortes. Holle is here today.”
It’s always nice to see policies connected to people, and Governor Inslee did that in spades with his 2024 State of the State remarks. He didn’t just rely on soaring rhetoric to carry the speech — he told the stories of Washingtonians who have been helped by new state laws passed by Washington’s Democratic majorities.
It made his address more memorable and resonant.
I photographed the special guests as they each stood with a telephoto lens, and it was lovely to see them beaming as the lawmakers down below applauded them.
The governor concluded his address by optimistically looking to the future.
“When I took office, we had audacious goals that defied the odds to become reality. I had confidence we could tackle these challenges because I’ve always believed in the unique talent and ambitions of Washingtonians,” said Inslee.
“Washingtonians have more resilience, more love for our state, and more endurance to push toward the sunny uplands of the future than any other people on the planet. The next two months, we’re going to make this state better at mental health, safer against opioids, more supportive for educators and students, and more committed to our climate.”
“We’ve made hope for the future possible because Washingtonians are never restricted by the past or the bog of the status quo.”
Inslee did not bring up Brian Heywood and Jim Walsh’s six destructive initiatives, though in many ways, his address felt like a rebuttal of the comments Heywood and Walsh have been making over the past six weeks as they turned in signatures for I‑2117, I‑2109, I‑2081, I‑2111, I‑2113, and I‑2124 — all initiatives that seek to partly or totally roll back key laws that Inslee has signed in the last four years.
For instance, on climate, Inslee said: “We will not relent to our greatest challenges. We will not go backward. This is the Evergreen State and the Ever Forward State. And we’re going ever forward on our evergreen agenda.”
“Climate change is our present, but climate collapse does not have to be inevitable. This Legislature put us on a clear — and necessary — path to slash greenhouse gases 95% by 2050. We will stay the course. Any delay would be a betrayal of our children’s future. We are on the razor’s edge between promise and peril.”
Within the chamber, Washington State’s Republican minority listened politely and did not interrupt or heckle the governor, in sharp contrast to how House Republicans have treated President Joe Biden during State of the Union addresses. Online, however, Republicans responded with negativity.
“Crime and the cost of living continues to skyrocket in Washington,” a tweet from the Senate Republican caucus began. “The fentanyl crisis worsens, many students are failing in school, our ferry system is broken, and homeless camps remain chronic. And yet, Governor Inslee calls our state ‘a beacon of progress.’ Washingtonians deserve better.” Tacked onto the tweet were a bunch of hashtags Republicans love to use: #UnsafeWA, #UnaffordableWA, #UnaccountableWA.
Meanwhile, House Republicans put up this video, laden with stock images:
As mentioned above, Governor Inslee raised the topics Republicans are griping about during his speech. He talked about education, he talked about fixing the ferries, he talked about getting people out of homeless encampments and into housing, he talked about dealing with the fentanyl crisis. His speech both celebrated progress that Washington has made while calling for more action across a range of issues. It did not ignore the state’s challenges at all.
Republicans were part of some of the accomplishments that Inslee spoke of — paid family and medical leave was a bipartisan accomplishment, for example.
Yet, rather than joining Inslee in offering a balanced assessment of where Washington stands, they consistently take a glass half empty view, failing to appreciate that there are two sides to every equation. But perhaps this behavior is to be expected. Their base is unhappy with Democratic governance and unhappy with the Republican Party’s repeated electoral failures over the past few cycles.
In a striking moment during the speech, Republicans sat stone-faced and did not applaud when Inslee called for a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive freedom. (The rest of the chamber gave Inslee a standing ovation, including the galleries.) Republican votes would be required to send such an amendment to voters, and they have zero interest in supporting one. There are no Republicans who favor reproductive rights on either side of the rotunda anymore.
Aside from Dan Evans and Arthur Langlie — both Republicans from eras when progressives were welcome in the Republican Party — no one has served as Governor of Washington State for longer than Jay Inslee has. He is just the third person, after the two of them, to have been elected to the position thrice, winning by a bigger margin each time. Inslee is also currently the governor with the most seniority. No other currently serving state governor has been in office for longer.
Inslee will leave office next January. He has pledged to remain active after his tenure comes to an end. But he’s still got one more year to go, and he has no intention of being a lame duck. “Run through the tape” is his mantra for these final twelve months, including the remainder of the short legislative session and the coming campaign to defeat Brian Heywood and Jim Walsh’s initiatives.
Knowing Governor Inslee, this isn’t just lofty talk. He means it and will be working every day to secure as many more accomplishments as he can before turning over the governor’s mansion to his successor in January of 2025.