By Ethan W.
On March 1, 2017, Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced his candidacy for the presidential election in 2020. His campaign is focused on the issue of climate change, “the defining issue of our time” according to the Inslee campaign’s website. Unlike any of the many other Democratic candidates vying for the presidency in 2020, Inslee is clear that of the many foreign and domestic issues facing our country, he will make climate change his highest priority.
On March 5, Inslee made his first trip as a candidate to Ohio, where he continued to discuss the importance of climate change after holding an event earlier in the week at a solar power plant in Seattle. As The Seattle Times reported, Inslee carried a steadfast message that climate change affects not just the weather, but is also extremely relevant to the economy and national security. Instead of being a “sacrifice,” Inslee posited, climate change offers an opportunity to create more, better jobs in fields such as solar power and solar panel installation.
In addition to his governorship, Inslee’s political career as a member of the Democratic Party includes service in both the Washington State and federal Houses of Representatives. According to The Washington Post, Inslee has contributed to numerous important liberal policies, spanning from enacting a raise of the minimum wage in Washington to supporting anti-assault-weapons legislation (a move which may have caused him to lose his seat in the US Congress in 1994). However, Inslee held strong in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that he would keep climate change at the forefront of his campaign.
Governor Inslee is running against a large and diverse field of Democratic candidates, many of them nationally well-known senators with much support. Inslee, however, has one thing many others do not: a clear, powerful, and consistent message on which to run. While others may struggle to find a policy or idea on which to base their campaigns, Inslee has established his on the basis of an issue viewed as essential by ever more Americans. Inslee’s campaign is currently being powered by his robust anti-climate-change messaging. Yet the question remains: Is it renewable?