Jay Inslee, Climate Candidate, Exits 2020 Presidential Race

Jay Inslee dropped his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday night as he looked unlikely to qualify for next months debate.

Its become clear that Im not going to be carrying the ball, Im not going to be the president, so Im withdrawing tonight from the race, Inslee told MSNBC s Rachel Maddow . Look, Ive been fighting climate change for 25 years, and Ive never been so confident of the ability of America now to reach critical mass to move the ball. I believe we are going to have a candidate to fight this battle and inspire the people I met across the country.

The Washington governors exit ends what began six months ago as a quixotic campaign centered on an issue that candidates in the last presidential election ignored. It finished with a book-length stack of proposals that chart a politically pragmatic path to averting catastrophic climate change in the decades to come.

We left an open-source gold standard of what will get us to a cleaner future and really will end our reliance on fossil fuels, Inslee told HuffPost by phone Wednesday afternoon. It was not just a campaign document, it was a governing document, and it could be used by anyone who ends up in the White House.

Just hours before announcing the governors plans to bow out of the race, the Inslee campaign released a 38-page memo detailing a plan to pay farmers to store carbon dioxide in soil, establish a new federal research agency on sustainable agriculture and invest billions in rural renewable electricity projects.

The campaign, despite its low polling, did more than draft a blueprint for a future administration to slash planet-heating emissions. While Inslees rivals barnstormed early primary states, the governor toured areas of the country ravaged by pollution, flooding and extreme weather, offering his candidacy as a megaphone.

BREAKING: Washington Governor Jay Inslee tells Rachel #Maddow that he is exiting the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race. pic.twitter.com/u8ZVlTjytM

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BREAKING: Washington Governor Jay Inslee tells Rachel #Maddow that he is exiting the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race. pic.twitter.com/u8ZVlTjytM
Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) August 22, 2019

In speeches and on the debate stage, he told stories of mobile homes in California reduced to molten aluminum and floodwaters throwing small-town life in Iowa into chaos. He amplified the concept of climate gentrification and relayed tales of a bookstore owner resisting near-daily offers to sell his shop in Miamis Little Haiti as real estate developers sought higher ground. He visited Michigans most polluted zip code, a mostly-Black area of southern Detroit, three times.

His emphasis on the climate crisis made it impossible for his competitors to deploy lackluster talking points such as recommitting to the Paris agreement or putting a price on carbon emissions.

We started a bit of an arms race among the candidates on climate change, Inslee said. I think Ive inspired people to be a little bolder.

He also picked a high-profile fight with the Democratic National Committee, demanding that party officials host a climate devoted entirely to climate change.

Inslee, 68, announced his decision on Thursday to run for a third term as the Evergreen States governor next year.

I want to continue to stand with you in opposing Donald Trump and rejecting his hurtful and divisive agenda, while strengthening and enhancing Washington states role as a progressive beacon for the nation, Inslee said in a statement.