Jay Inslee

Jay Inslee
Inslee in 2024
23rd Governor of Washington
Incumbent
Assumed office January 16, 2013
Lieutenant	Brad Owen Cyrus Habib Denny Heck
Preceded by	Christine Gregoire
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington
In office January 3, 1999 – March 20, 2012
Preceded by	Rick White
Succeeded by	Suzan DelBene
Constituency	1st district
In office January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1995
Preceded by	Sid Morrison
Succeeded by	Doc Hastings
Constituency	4th district
Member of the Washington House of Representatives from the 14th district
In office January 9, 1989 – January 11, 1993
Preceded by	Jim Lewis
Succeeded by	Dave Lemmon
Personal details
Born	Jay Robert Inslee (1951-02-09) February 9, 1951 (age 73) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Trudi Tindall ​ (m. 1972)​
Children	3
Residence	Governor's Mansion
Education	University of Washington (BA) Willamette University (JD)
Signature
Website	Campaign website

Jay Robert Inslee (/ˈɪnzli/ INZ-lee;^[1] 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. On May 1, 2023, he announced that he would not run for a fourth term.

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 first 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.