Jay Inslee

Jay Inslee
Inslee in 2019
23rd Governor of Washington
Assumed office
January 16, 2013
LieutenantBrad Owen
Cyrus Habib
Denny Heck
Preceded byChristine Gregoire
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Washington
In office
January 3, 1999 – March 20, 2012
Preceded byRick White
Succeeded bySuzan DelBene
Constituency1st district
In office
January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995
Preceded bySid Morrison
Succeeded byDoc Hastings
Constituency4th district
Member of the Washington House of Representatives
from the 14th district
In office
January 9, 1989 – January 11, 1993
Preceded byJim Lewis
Succeeded byDave Lemmon
Personal details
Born
Jay Robert Inslee

(1951-02-09) February 9, 1951 (age 73)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Trudi Tindall
(m. 1972)
Children3
ResidenceGovernor's Mansion
EducationUniversity of Washington (BA)
Willamette University (JD)
Signature
WebsiteCampaign website

Jay Robert Inslee (/ˈɪnzl/; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician, lawyer, and economist who has served as the 23rd governor of Washington since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 1995 and again from 1999 to 2012, and was a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. He is the longest-serving current governor in the United States.

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 reelected 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, 51% to 48%. Inslee was reelected to a second term in 2016. He was briefly a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He was reelected to a third term as governor in 2020.

As governor, Inslee has emphasized climate change, education, criminal justice reform, and drug policy reform. He has garnered national attention for his critiques of President Donald Trump. Inslee joined state attorney general Bob Ferguson and state solicitor general Noah Purcell in suing the 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, and other executive orders later superseded it.