Jay Inslee reflects on 12 years as Washington governor - Anlık Haber

After 12 years in office, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s last day in office is today.

First elected in 2012 after serving in the House in both D.C. and Olympia, Inslee was only the second Washington governor after Republican Dan Evans (who served 1965-1977) elected to a trio of consecutive four-year terms.

Washington’s politics – and national politics – have changed in the decade since Inslee took the state’s top job.

Cascade PBS sat down with Inslee recently to reflect on his time as governor, including COVID, housing and the incoming second administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Paris Jackson, Cascade PBS: You have accomplished so much in your final stretch. What are you most proud of?

Inslee: Well, let me, if I can, friendly amendment. It’s not me. It’s the state that has accomplished so much. I’ve been able to play a role, but we have been very successful over the last 12 years because we have been able to give expression to what I believe are basic Washington values. We believe in science. We don’t reject science. We make decisions about the community good for all of us. We don’t leave people behind. We welcome people for who they are. And I think we have given expression to those basic values of the state of Washington. And I can’t pick one thing.

Maybe I’ll just pick two. I think if you look at the kind of things that were most successful, that were the most challenging is our COVID response, that I was called upon because of the unique role I’m in to make some decisions, and our efforts to lead the nation against climate change and build a clean-energy economy.

I think if people look back 50 years from now, they will pick those two things as the thing that’s most emblematic of the genius of the state of Washington over the last 12 years.

But underneath that are just so many steps forward we’ve been able to make. With the best financial aid package in the country for our students. With the first long-term care plan that the voters just approved big-time. With more fairness in our tax system. With the capital gains tax, again, the voters approved big-time. With our apprenticeship program. With our two largest transportation packages in state history. Our solution to the McCleary [public school] state funding challenge. That doesn’t mean we [don’t] need to do more – we need to do more in special ed and the like.

So I would pick those two if I had to do some nominations.

If we kind of stick with the pandemic. Washington – you, in particular – was successful in reducing harm in terms of the loss of life. But there was also pushback from those that did not support some of the policies in terms of the restrictions, and you chose to fire some state workers. When you look at that in totality, is there anything you would have done different?

It’s hard to, given the success of our mutual endeavor, it’s hard to be critical of what our state did because we were successful in what we set out to do, which is to save Washingtonians’ lives. I made a decision that was the fundamental value that we should respect of not allowing Washingtonians to die needless deaths.

And we largely were successful in that, relative. Now our losses were heartfelt for everyone we lost. But if you look at our success in saving Washingtonians’ lives, it’s profound. I mean, if we’d had the same fatality rate, for instance, as Mississippi, we would’ve lost another 18,000 Washingtonians. Think about that – that’s a small football stadium. If people who are alive today, who are amongst us, who are going to, you know, Christmas dinner and enjoying the New Year, that would not have been alive had we not done the things that we did.

So it’s hard to be critical of the decisions that were made. If – if! – you believe in saving lives. And that’s what I think the state really wanted to do. I’m pretty confident that’s what the state wanted because they reelected me by, I don’t know, 500,000 votes or something. And I think that was a vindication of what the state wanted to do.

Now those decisions were extremely difficult. I felt them profoundly. When I thought of the weight of some of my decisions. Of a business [that would] have to close down, man. I felt that. I thought of a person who invested their life savings in a restaurant and had to shut it down. I felt that when I made those decisions. But they were necessary to save lives, and they did save lives, and we kept our economy afloat at the same time and now it’s come roaring back.

So it’s difficult to say that, you know, we should be critical of our state in this regard. And our state is recognized as we are in so many other things, as having been a leader in the COVID response. And that was, you know, made, frankly, more difficult by the then-president [Donald Trump], who really [was] trying to mislead people to say they should take, you know, bleach and ultraviolet light in their lungs and things that made it more difficult for our states to move forward. We had to overcome that resistance to science, and that made it more difficult.

So all in all I’m proud of our state and our COVID response, and I want to thank everyone who pulled together. Fundamentally, we pulled together as a state. We did what was necessary to save our lives of our loved ones.

“If you look at our success in saving Washingtonians’ lives, it’s profound. I mean, if we’d had the same fatality rate, for instance, as Mississippi, we would’ve lost another 18,000 Washingtonians.” (David Ryder for Cascade PBS)

You alluded to some of what a past administration, the Trump administration, had had done during that time in terms of its response. Washington has set the tone in [Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s] office filing lawsuits when the state felt that administration overstepped. What do you think the role is of Washington state as we have a new Trump administration coming into office?

When? In regard to?

To, for instance, deportation of folks from communities, cities across the country. What’s Washington’s role if those things actually come to pass?

Well, listen, I think the values of the state of Washington are ones that I’d hoped be replicated by other states. And we have certain values. We respect our young people’s ambitions. So now we have students at the University of Washington and Washington State [University] who might have come here at age 2 that in the past – and I don’t know what his current policy is – is to try to throw those people out of the University of Washington, WSU, and send them back to a country they don’t even remember. That would not only be callous, it would be dumb to take that talent out of our state.

We have people who have lived here for 20, 30 years who are feeding us in the agricultural industry; literally, they’re putting food on our plate. And the agriculture industry would be severely damaged if, in fact, you removed all those people, many of whom [have] been here for decades. And what I’m hopeful to happen, because I’m a person based on hope, is that the bipartisan efforts that were near success several years ago to do immigration reform – so that we don’t crater our agricultural economy, we don’t crater the dreams of our Dreamers – [we] can have immigration reform as opposed to what he’s proposing now.

You know, he’s talking about criminals, acting like all these folks are criminals. These people are going to our churches, they’re soccer coaches, they’re at the University of Washington. So … Washington values, I think should be respected and the law should be respected as well. And we will be adept at protecting ourselves with [Governor-elect] Bob [Ferguson] and [Attorney General-elect] Nick [Brown] on the job. So I feel good about that.

Another Washington value is science. Look, we’re a very scientifically literate state. We lead the world in new technologies because we understand science. So we make decisions based on science rather than fantasy and hallucination or ideology. That’s why we acted against COVID. Whereas Donald Trump tried to minimize this problem and made it more difficult for us to fight this terrible disease.

That’s why we’re standing up against climate change. And I’m gratified that <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/politics/2024/11/wa-voters-want-keep-carbon-and-capital-gains-taxes” target=”_blank”>voters agreed that we ought to do that by a 62-38 margins</a>, because we understand science. So there’s another principle and value that I hope other states will join us on.

You got to understand, a lot of states look to us for leadership. They’re impressed with our leadership on climate change. In fact, the world is. I went to Azerbaijan and to the climate conference, and people were very excited about what Washingtonians decided at the ballot box on the [Climate Commitment Act]. And then we believe in justice. We believe in basic fairness. So voters decided, you know, should we throw homeless single mothers out on the street, or should we <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/politics/2024/10/capital-gains-tax-repeal-could-cost-wa-public-schools-billions” target=”_blank”>ask really wealthy people would pay just a little bit more</a>? They decided the latter was a better course because we value fairness, and we need more fairness in our tax code.

Governor Inslee speaks with Cascade PBS reporter Paris Jackson at the Washington State Capitol building on January 9, 2025. (David Ryder for Cascade PBS)

Let’s go back to how the state is recognized for what has been done to stave off climate change in terms of … the Climate Commitment Act [and] voter support of that most recently to keep it going. When you look back, is there anything that you would have done differently? And what do you say to those who believe that climate actions like these aren’t necessary?

Well, they’re just wrong because they continue to deny the science. I ask them to go down and walk around Sunset Boulevard today and look what’s happening in Los Angeles to thousands and thousands of people. Look what happened in <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/environment/2023/06/washington-people-keep-building-houses-where-they-might-burn” target=”_blank”>Malden, Washington and Medical Lake</a>, whole towns that burned down because of this. Talk to the children who couldn’t go outside and play [for] a couple of Augusts because the forest fires smoke, literally. Talk to the scientists who were already seeing temperature changes. And, you know, our rivers are so hot, salmon literally can’t survive. Talk to the people who know that 40% of the glacial ice in Mount Rainier has disappeared during my lifetime.

You got to pull your head out of the sand. Don’t be an ostrich. Be an eagle. Understand that we can defeat climate change. So we’ve got to follow Washington’s lead, which is to follow the science.

And then – I think this is important – the second part of Washington I love is that we are just optimistic that we can solve this problem because we’re doing it.

We’re building. I just signed a permit today for the largest solar farm in Washington state history – It’s kind of neat to do as I’m going out – for the Wautoma Solar Project. Largest one can do 300,000 homes over in Benton County. We’re building the world’s most advanced silicon nanobatteries in the whole world in Grant County. … Three of the leading fusion companies in the whole world are within eight miles of the Space Needle.

So we are very optimistic people, and we’re acting on that optimism and it’s working big-time and helping our economy.

Look, one of the reasons our economy is doing so well is because of these clean-energy jobs that we are building. Electricians were putting in the work by the scads and putting in EV charging stations in building new production facilities.

Construction workers are building new manufacturing plants. Truckers are delivering more products and [will] soon be driving electric semi-trucks, which actually I got to drive and [First Lady] Trudi [Inslee] got to drive. They had to tell her to slow down, by the way, on the test track.

So I think if we hew to Washington values, we’re going to do real well.

And again, it’s more important what the people think than maybe what I think. And the people think in overwhelming numbers. We got to continue this course, as they voted on the Climate Commitment Act by 62-to-38 margins.

Governor Inslee walks with his wife Trudy Inslee and press secretary Mike Faulk at the Capitol on January 9, 2025. (David Ryder for Cascade PBS)

There also still remain challenges to everything. It’s the life that we live. We talk about homelessness. That is still a crisis here in our state. You’ve put forward one particular initiative, the <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/briefs/2023/07/wa-repurposes-days-inn-lacey-those-living-along-highways” target=”_blank”>Rights of Way</a>, to move individuals from the sides of highways within our cities and counties and so forth and into housing. Do you think things could have been done more to mitigate that particular issue, as the work continues to house those [who] are unhoused?

Well, that particular initiative has been very successful. We used to have 42 or 46 large homeless encampments between Olympia and Everett on I-5. They’re no longer there. And the reason they’re no longer there is because of an initiative that I was quite insistent that the legislature finance so we can get those people off of our roadways, which is … a safety hazard. They were living in unhygienic conditions.

We now have got them into housing and it’s been very successful because after, I think, a year we get about 70% of those folks are still in that housing because we gave them mental health treatment and the chemical addiction treatment to get off of drugs. And that’s been a very successful program.

We’ve also had some success in reducing youth homelessness, which we’ve reduced by 40% in the last several years because we’ve really targeted – and I credit Trudi for a lot of that – of leading this effort to really target youth to get them housed so they don’t have to go down these dark paths.

But listen, we have to build thousands and thousands more housing units in the state of Washington. The fundamental problem in our state is we just don’t have housing units enough. We’ve had a million people move in in the last decade, but we’ve only built enough housing to house, you know, like 300,000 housing units. So we have to build more housing. And, you know, I think both parties agree that we have a housing crisis, but one party’s willing to do something about it. And we’ve got to do several things about it.

Number one, we got to make it to have more places to build housing. That means we have to change some of our zoning laws that will allow denser housing in some of our urban areas. I have asked the legislature to do that. They’ve done one step, but they need to take several more so we have more places to build housing.

And second, we need to make very significant public investments in building housing, because the private market is not going to be able to do enough for lower-income people to actually build these houses. And we got to make a choice where you’re going to have giant homeless encampments, or we’re going to continue the upward climb of building housing. And I have asked the legislature to do that. They have done that by billions of dollars while I’ve been governor. And they haven’t done as much as I’ve asked them to do.

But as going forward, the one thing I can say is we can’t go backwards. We can’t go backwards. We just can’t cut the level of support we have for housing. We should not increase homelessness in the state of Washington.

And when you reflect on everything that you’ve laid out in terms of the successes and the challenges, is there anything that comes to mind … that you would have handled differently or amended ways that you handled things?

Well, it’s hard when we’ve had this much success, it’s hard to argue with yourself and, you know, go looking for regrets. Listen, there’s all kinds of things you do when you’re governor. You make hard decisions every single day. I’m sure that in the fullness of time, you can go back and say, should have done this, should have done that, but you can’t. You can’t drive in the rearview mirror.

Look, I’ve had some things I’ve tried that haven’t worked. You know, when I was early governor, we had a Republican Senate, and they were just refusing – refusing! –to do anything to do advances in transportation while our people are choking in traffic. And I said, you know, what can we do to get them to at least open up their minds?

So I invited Ray LaHood, who is a former Republican in Congress and also Secretary of Transportation [under Pres. Barack Obama] and [a] really nice guy. I served with him in Congress [and] said, come on out. And could you just talk to some of your Republican colleagues? And he came out and I had him go into the caucus. And the Republicans just fricasseed him. They just treated him like enemy number one. He’s a Republican congressman.

That didn’t work, but I persisted, I was resilient. I would not take no for an answer. And we ended up getting the largest transportation package through a Republican Senate when they kept saying no for five years. So eventually things worked out.

As you wrap it up, again, we can talk ad nauseam about the successes and also the challenges, but as you move forward and you complete your week or so left in office, what is next for you? Because I hear that it’s not retirement.

No, I don’t intend to retire. I want to be fully engaged. I will look for the best way that I can help this effort to spread the gospel of Washington on clean energy and fighting climate change. And I’ll have time to think about that.

Right now, the challenge, however, though, is figuring out how I’m going to squeeze 12 years’ accumulation of stuff into our basement in Kitsap County. That’s the number one challenge. If you have any space, let me know.

We appreciate you taking the time. If there’s any last thing that you want to say to Washingtonians – because this is probably, as a team, our last time with you. Last message, as you just kind of pass the torch to a fellow Democrat.

Well, I have four things. Number one, thank you for this honor. Two, thank you for this privilege. Three, thank you for going through an incredible 12 years with us. I couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity. There’s no job like governor. I got up every single morning and asked myself, what could I do for Washingtonians? And that was a huge privilege. The fourth thing I will say is, man, we got some special here. The world envies us in so many ways, and I love all Washingtonians. And by gum, we showed them a great 12 years together.

“I don’t intend to retire. I want to be fully engaged. … The world envies [Washington] in so many ways.” (David Ryder for Cascade PBS)

Topics: <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/climate” hreflang=”en”>Climate</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/housing” hreflang=”en”>Housing</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/politcs” hreflang=”en”>politcs</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/washington-legislature” hreflang=”en”>Washington Legislature</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/washington-state” hreflang=”en”>Washington State</a>

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