The Story:
Though his name recognition remains low outside of the Pacific Northwest, Washington’s Governor, Jay Inslee, is plainly positioning himself for a run for the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination for President.
The Profile:
A generally sympathetic profile of Inslee in The Atlantic, written by Edward-Isaac Dovere, says that Inslee is “lining up donors [for a Presidential campaign] and adding them to the political-action committee he launched in December.”
Inslee plan is to break from what already looks to be a very large pack by a single-issue focus: a focus on climate change. This is not an issue he has discovered since one of the recent wildfires or floods: Inslee wrote a book on the subject in 2007, when he was a member of Congress.
The Thing to Know:
Yes, Inslee will be a dark horse. His name hasn’t even been included in the early polling. But there are precedents for the capture of the White House by a determined Governor of a smallish state: Bill Clinton (D – Ark), and Jimmy Carter (D – Ga) both come to mind.
