Jay Inslee is running for president in 2020. Here's everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.

Grace Panetta

Apr 2, 2019, 04:01 IST

Jay Inslee is running for president in 2020. Here's everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Washington Governor Jay Inslee

Who is Jay Inslee?

Current job: Governor of Washington

Age: 67

Family: Inslee and his wife Trudi have been married since 1972. They have three children and three grandchildren.

Hometown: Seattle, Washington

Political party: Democratic

Previous jobs: Member of the US House of Representatives 1993-1995 and 1999-2012, regional coordinator for the Department of Health and Human Services, member of the Washington House of Representatives 1989-1993, lawyer and prosecutor.

Who is Jay Inslee's direct competition for the nomination?

Based on a recurring series of national surveys we conduct, we can figure out who the other candidates competing in Jay Inslee's lane are, and who the broader opponents are within the party.

Even after weeks of polling, we're really not near the sample size of Jay Inslee name recognition where we'd be confident interpreting his performance and drawing conclusions about his candidacy.
Only about 100 of the 2,850 voters who said they'd likely participate in the Democratic primary process both knew of and would be satisfied with Inslee as nominee.

INSIDER has been conducting a recurring poll through SurveyMonkey Audience on a national sample to find out how different candidate's constituencies overlap. We ask people whether they are familiar with a candidate, whether they would be satisfied or unsatisfied with that candidate as nominee, and sometimes we also ask whether they think that person would win or lose in a general election against President Donald Trump.

What are Jay Inslee's policy positions?

On healthcare:
- In 2019, Inslee announced he would be introducing a public option for healthcare in Washington that would allow people to buy into government-subsidized healthcare.
- He also recently introduced a new private-public initiative to improve children's health outcomes, including reducing child obesity.
On immigration:
- Last year, Washington led a group of states in successfully suing the Trump administration over their ban on people from certain Muslim-majority nations entering the US.
- Inslee supports DACA, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children and has enabled undocumented students in Washington to receive financial aid.
On climate change:
- Inslee is running as "the climate candidate," with a progressive campaign rooted in environmental issues. He's been raising the alarm about climate change for decades, and has taken steps to expand clean energy infrastructure and cut down on fossil fuel reliance in Washington.
- As president, he would aim to bring the United States to be powered by 100% clean energy with net-zero carbon emissions, and invest in green infrastructure to innovate new technologies and create jobs.
- Inslee also wants to advance environmental justice by reducing the disparate impacts of climate change on low-income communities and communities of color, and end government subsidies to fossil fuel companies.
On campaign finance/election reform:
- Inslee has enacted a number of election reforms in Washington, including automatic voter registration, allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, and same-day registration.
- Inslee has been criticized for not distancing himself from a Super PAC created to support him.
On abortion:
- Inslee is strongly pro-choice. Last year, he signed legislation requiring private insurance companies who cover pre-natal and maternity care in Washington state to also cover abortion procedures.
- He's also spoken out against the Trump administration's new revisions to the Title X program which seek to ban any clinics that provide abortion services or referrals from receiving federal funding for family planning care.
On LGBTQ rights:
- Inslee signed legislation banning gay conversion therapy for minors in Washington in 2018.
- In 2016, he also created a "Safe Place" initiative to promote inclusion and awareness of LGBT rights in state government.
On education:
- Inslee has opposed diverting public school funding towards privately-owned charter schools.
- As Washington's governor, he's pushed for tax increases to expand early childhood education and increase teacher pay.
On guns:
- A few days after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Florida, Inslee personally confronted Trump on gun safety issues at the White House.
- In response to the idea of preventing school shootings by arming teachers, Inslee said that educators should "not be foisted upon this responsibility of packing heat in first-grade classes."
- Back in 1994, Inslee took a political risk by voting for the federal assault weapons ban, which some say contributed to him losing his congressional seat in rural eastern Washington.
- As Governor, Inslee has implemented ballot initiatives raising the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic weapon from 18 to 21, and a "red flag" law which allows law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from people who could pose a public safety risk.
On criminal justice reform:
- Inslee oversaw the legalization and regulation of recreational marijuana in Washington state, and retroactively pardoned 3,500 Washingtonians with misdemeanor marijuana convictions.
- He also suspended Washington's use of the death penalty in 2014, and fully eliminated it last year.
- Inslee signed a package of juvenile justice reforms into law in 2018 that removed the requirements for certain minor defendants to be tried as adults and increased funding for diversion programs.
On trade:
- Inslee, who helped President Bill Clinton design the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the early 1990s, supports free trade and is opposed to the Trump administration's tariffs.
- In a 2018 op-ed for CNBC, Inslee slammed Trump's "erratic and unilateral moves" in waging a trade war with China, who he cited as one of Washington state's most crucial trading partners.
- "About two-thirds of all Washington agricultural exports are destined for Asia ... any punitive tariffs to Asian markets are felt deeply in the Evergreen State," he wrote.
On foreign policy:
- As the governor of a border state, Inslee has held frequent meetings and summits with Canadian leaders from the nearby province of British Columbia and with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017.
- Inslee voted against the Iraq War back in 2002. "I had the judgment, the foresight, the understanding to stand foursquare against it early and forcefully," he said of his decision.
On taxes:
- Inslee recently proposed introducing new taxes on capital gains income and service-provider corporations in Washington state.
- He has also attempted to introduce a carbon tax in Washington state on multiple occasions but has not yet prevailed.
On jobs and the economy:
- Inslee has signed legislation that will raise Washington's minimum wage to $13.50 an hour by 2020.
- He also recently enacted an expansive new family leave plan which guarantees 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents in Washington.
- In 2017, Inslee introduced the Career Connect Washington initiative, which helps high school students pursue technical and vocational apprenticeships that feed into stable careers as an alternative to four-year college.
On technology:
- Inslee is leading an effort to expand rural broadband internet access throughout Washington.
- After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) eliminated net neutrality nationwide, Inslee worked with legislators to implement net neutrality-style regulations within Washington.
- This legislative session, Inslee is also working on new Internet privacy regulations that said he hopes will be "consistent with innovation and also consistent with fundamental rights of privacy."

What are Jay Inslee's biggest political successes?

Inslee has led the charge on climate issues for years. After the United States pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, Inslee helped create and lead the US Climate Alliance, a group of 17 governors seeking to achieve the Paris Accords' goals within their own states.
Under Inslee's time as governor, Washington's economy has been ranked first or second in the nation.
As chairman of the National Democratic Governors' Association, Inslee helped flip seven governorships across the country from Republican to Democratic control in the 2018 cycle.

How much money has Jay Inslee raised?

The Inslee campaign reported raising $1 million in the first few days after he formally announced his campaign on March 1.

Could Jay Inslee beat Trump?

Referring back to INSIDER's recurring poll, Jay Inslee is not getting anywhere near enough name recognition to get the needed sample size to draw conclusions about how he'd perform in a general election against Donald Trump. Generally, that is not a good sign.