Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday he's running for president, saying he will emphasize attempts to combat climate change during his bid for the Democratic nomination.
"I believe it's a potentially winning issue to run on," Inslee, 67, recently told Rolling Stone.
A book Inslee wrote on the topic some 10 years ago, "Apollo's Fire," argued for a clean energy program on the scale of President John F. Kennedy's moon shot. He's still pushing that message.
He has some reason to be optimistic that it will resonate. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll from December found that 66 percent of Americans now say action is warranted on climate change, up from 51 percent two decades ago.
But it's far from clear that voters will make the environment a priority on Election Day. Inslee lost a 2018 ballot initiative in his own home state that would have imposed the nation's first carbon fee on large polluters.
Climate change is not his only calling card for primary voters. As chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, he helped his party flip seven states blue in the 2018 midterms. Inslee has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump—Washington brought suit against Trump's initial travel ban, winning an injunction. He was also critical of George W. Bush's Iraq war when he served in Congress.
Inslee's recently launched political action committee has raised $112,500, according to a November filing with the Federal Election Committee. That could help finance forays to early primary states like Iowa (he visited twice in 2018) and New Hampshire, the Seattle Times reported.
Still, he's not considered a top-tier candidate. He joins a potentially crowded field. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the first to throw her hat into the ring on Dec. 31. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand and Corey Booker, and newcomers like Texas Rep. Beto O'Roarke are among those who could soon join the fray.
"You're coming from Washington state, and that's a big liability," Ron Dotzauer, a Seattle-based political strategist recently told McClatchyDC.com. "You can't get farther away from the epicenter of politics, except if you're in Alaska or Hawaii."
Even Inslee is hedging his bets. If things don't go his way, the governor told the Seattle Times, he could drop out by May, in time to run for a third term as Washington's top politician. "I see no reason to take that off as an option," he said.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.
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