Jay Inslee

Jay Robert Inslee (born February 9, 1951) is an American politician, lawyer, and economist who has served as the 23rd governor of Washington since 2013.

Jay Robert Inslee was born February 9, 1951, in Seattle, Washington, the oldest of three sons of Adele A. (née Brown; d. 2007) and Frank E. Inslee (1926–2014).

Inslee is a fifth-generation Washingtonian.

Inslee describes his family as being of English and Welsh descent.

Inslee attended Seattle's Ingraham High School, where he was an honor-roll student and star athlete, graduating in 1969.

He played center on his high school basketball team and was also the starting quarterback on his football team.

Inslee's interest in environmental issues originated at an early age, with his parents leading groups of high school students on trips cleaning Mount Rainier.

He met his future wife, Trudi Tindall, at Ingraham during his sophomore year.

Graduating at the height of the Vietnam War, Inslee received student deferments from the draft.

Inslee began college at Stanford University, where he initially intended on studying medicine.

After a year, he was forced to drop out because he was unable to get a scholarship.

He returned home and, living in his parents' basement, attended the University of Washington.

Inslee and his wife were married on August 27, 1972, and have three sons: Jack, Connor, and Joseph.

After Inslee finished law school, they moved to Selah, a suburb of Yakima.

Inslee joined the law firm Peters, Schmalz, Leadon & Fowler, working as a city prosecutor.

He practiced in Selah for 10 years.

He received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in economics in 1973.

He then attended the Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon, receiving a Juris Doctor in 1976.

He first became politically active in 1985, while advocating for the construction of a new high school.

The experience sparked Inslee's interest in politics, emboldening him to run for political office.

Inslee ran for the Washington House of Representatives in 1988 after incumbent Republican State Representative Jim Lewis left office.

He served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1989 to 1993.

In 1992, Inslee was elected to represent WA's 4th congressional district, based around Central Washington, in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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.

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, this time for WA'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.

Inslee 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.