Inslee, Jay

Jay Robert Inslee ( INZ-lee; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 23rd governor of Washington from 2013 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995 and from 1999 to 2012. Inslee was also a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Born and raised in Seattle, Inslee graduated from the University of Washington and Willamette University College of Law. He served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1989 to 1993. In 1992, Inslee was elected to represent Washington's 4th congressional district, based around Central Washington, in the U.S. House of Representatives. Defeated for reelection in 1994, Inslee briefly returned to private legal practice. He made his first run for governor of Washington in 1996, coming in fifth in the blanket primary with 10% of the vote. Inslee then served as regional director for the United States Department of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton. Inslee returned to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999 representing Washington's 1st congressional district. The new district included Seattle's northern suburbs in King County, Snohomish County, and Kitsap County. He was re-elected six times before announcing that he would make another run for the governorship in the 2012 election. He defeated Republican Rob McKenna, the state attorney general, 52% to 48%, in the general election. Inslee was reelected to a second term in 2016. He was briefly a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election before being reelected to a third term as governor that year. On May 1, 2023, he announced that he would not run for a fourth term. As governor, Inslee emphasized climate change, education, criminal justice reform, and drug policy reform. He garnered national attention for his critiques of President Donald Trump. Inslee joined then state attorney general Bob Ferguson and state solicitor general Noah Purcell in suing the first Trump administration over Executive Order 13769, which halted travel for 90 days from seven Muslim-majority countries and imposed a total ban on Syrian refugees entering the United States. The case, Washington v. Trump, led to the order being blocked by the courts; other executive orders later superseded it.