Jay Inslee is succeeding in raising the profile of climate change, if not in gaining traction in the Democratic presidential primary. Climate change has matched or overtaken healthcare and jobs in some polls as a top issue for Democratic voters, a trend for which Democrats give Inslee at least some credit.
“Inslee is doing the party, activists, the other candidates, and people who really care about climate change an enormous service by doing the legwork and putting thinking on the page,” said Julian NoiseCat, director of Green New Deal strategy at Data for Progress, a liberal group.
The Washington governor is polling at less than 1%, but he has set off an arms race on climate change in the Democratic primary, forcing competitors such as presumed front-runner and former Vice President Joe Biden to release plans on it before any other issue.
Inslee said he welcomes the competition. Inslee, 68, a modest two-term governor and Seattle native who served 15 years in the U.S. House, is trying to challenge better-polling Democrats on climate change, comparing his aptitude on policy with the skills of multiple-time MVP Stephen Curry of the NBA. Inslee once led his high school basketball team to a state championship.
“I don’t feel threatened in the throne,” Inslee told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “I feel confident my climate change position is the most scientifically sound and economically productive than any of the others. That shouldn’t be surprising because I have been at this for decades, while others have awoken to this recently. People will conclude mine is the gold standard.”
Inslee insists he will remain in the race to win and has no intention of taking a position as “climate change czar” in another Democrat’s administration, a proposal circulating among advocates who admire Inslee but fear he can’t win.
“I am running for president and not some other position,” Inslee said. “The moment calls for presidential leadership, and it can’t come from any other source.”
He has presented himself as an experienced pragmatist who has had success with climate change initiatives in his state. Central to that experience, he says, is his stewardship of the Washington state economy, which was the fastest-growing in the U.S. in 2018, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Inslee credits this to investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing. He recently signed a bill making Washington the fourth state in the country to have a 100% clean electricity mandate, a policy Inslee seeks to impose at the federal level.
His climate platform contains a headline goal of net-zero carbon emissions across all U.S. economic sectors by 2045, while closing all the country’s coal plants by 2030.
The Sunrise Movement, a liberal group of young activists credited with popularizing the Green New Deal, told the Washington Examiner Inslee is “leading the pack so far” in transforming a vision into a policy platform.
“From his detailed policy plans and campaign focus, it is clear Gov. Jay Inslee takes the climate emergency seriously and understands the historic opportunity we have right now to transform our economy and create millions of good jobs,” said Garrett Blad, Sunrise’s national press coordinator.
Climate hawks in Congress agree. “I give him all the credit in the world,” said Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., the chairwoman of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis who served with Inslee in Congress. “He is one of America’s brightest lights when it comes to focusing on the solutions to the climate crisis.”
There are other signs Inslee is setting the climate agenda. In recent weeks, 14 of Inslee’s fellow candidates have joined his call for a climate change-focused primary debate, after the Democratic National Committee rejected the concept.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez, explaining the committee’s rationale, said it would be unfair to reward Inslee for his climate-obsessed approach by dedicating a debate to the issue.
Paul Bledsoe, a former climate change adviser to President Bill Clinton who now works for the Progressive Policy Institute, said the incident shows Inslee has cemented a “stature” for himself that he wouldn’t have if not for his focus on climate change.
“There is a history of these issue-focused campaigns being influential and long-lasting on politics and policy,” Bledsoe said.
He drew a parallel between Inslee’s candidacy and Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign drawing attention to poverty and unemployment among low-wage workers, as well as Ross Perot in 1992 pushing Clinton to take debt reduction seriously.
Rivals say Inslee’s one-issue focus won’t capture voters’ imagination. Former Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., a centrist presidential candidate also behind in the polls, said that the president “cannot be singularly focused.”
“He’s not running to be the head of the EPA,” Delaney told the Washington Examiner.
Delaney’s own climate change plan centers around a carbon tax, a policy Inslee had left out of his platform until recently. Inslee twice failed to convince voters in Washington state to impose carbon pricing through a ballot initiative.
Other skeptics criticized Inslee’s persistent demands for a climate change debate, viewing it as self-serving and distracting.
“The climate debate has been consuming the field,” a House Democratic aide told the Washington Examiner. “It has been a clever tactic on Inslee’s part to take control over the climate change conversation. I don’t think that has served the issue itself. It has served Jay Inslee.”
R.L. Miller, founder of the liberal voter mobilization group Climate Hawks Vote, said she worries better-known candidates could benefit from Inslee’s climate activism and he won’t get the credit.
“People are loving his ideas, but it’s just a very crowded field,” Miller said. “Not a lot of people are going to say he is the only one on climate change because it’s easy for someone like [Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth] Warren or Biden to pick up to the best of his plans. There is a risk he ends up as a ghostwriter on climate for the next president.”
Inslee is optimistic he can survive in a leading role.
He attributes his low polling numbers to low name recognition and identifies with other former governors who have polled low early in campaigns, such as Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
“Less than a third of people in the U.S. could identify me out of a lineup,” Inslee said. “We are at the very early stages of becoming known. I am still in a unique situation. Even if there were other candidates who wrote a book on climate change longer and better than mine, if they aren’t committed to it body and soul, it won’t get done.”
