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Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s net worth was estimated at $323,511 by the Center for Responsive Politics in 2010 when he last served in Congress. Since then, he has earned $170,000 annual salary as governor along with a $43,000 annual congressional pension, The Seattle Times reported.
Inslee announced that he will seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination to start 2019. Inslee has spent nearly his entire adult life as a public servant, working as a prosecutor before running for various offices, with stints as a private lawyer in between.
Inslee served in the Washington state House of Representatives before serving in the US House of Representatives for nearly two decades. He was elected governor of Washington in 2013.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Inslee is The Son of a Teacher and a Sales Clerk
Jay Inslee was born in Seattle in 1951 to Frank E. Inslee, a Navy veteran, biology teacher, and high school coach and Adele Inslee, a sales clerk. Frank Inslee worked at Seattle’s Garfield High School and later Chief Sealth High School before becoming the athletic director for Seattle Public Schools, The News Tribune reported. Frank passed away in 2014. Adele passed away in 2007.
Jay Inslee attended the University of Washington and later earned a law degree at Willamette University College of Law. In college, Inslee married his high school sweetheart, Trudi, at the age of 21, Seattle Business reported. The couple later moved to Selah, where Jay became a prosecutor.
The Inslees have three sons — Jack, Connor, and Joe — who they raised on a four-acre property surrounded by apple orchards. Prior to moving to the governor’s mansion, the Inslees lived in a brick house on Bainbridge Island.
“I’m the candidate who has driven a bulldozer in Bellevue and has painted houses in Burien and has washed dishes and waited tables in Edmonds, who has prosecuted drunk drivers in Yakima, who has taught community college in Yakima, who has grown alfalfa in Eastern Washington, who’s represented the Hanford nuclear workers,” Inslee told Seattle Business in 2012. “I am the candidate in this race with work experience, which really acquaints me with the real working lives of working middle class people in the state of Washington.”
2. Inslee is a Career Public Servant
After earning his law degree, Inslee and his wife moved to Selah, a city just north of Yakima, to become a prosecutor.
In 1988, Inslee defeated Yakima Mayor Lynn Carmichael for an open state legislative seat, Seattle Business reported.
He ran for Congress four years later. His campaign manager, Lisa Van Der Lugt, recalled his passion for campaigning.
“He loved being out on the road and coming back with stories,” she told Seattle Business. “Once, there was this guy walking down the street with some sort of reptile on his head and Jay was talking to him. I said, ‘Jay, did you get his vote?’ and Jay said, ‘I just started talking to him. He had some interesting ideas.’”
Inslee won his 1992 election but lost his re-election bid because of his support for the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
His wife talked him out of running for local office in 1995 so Inslee unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1996, losing in a blanket primary to King County Executive Gary Locke.
In 1998, Inslee ran for a US House seat in Washington’s newly-redrawn First District. Inslee won the race with a plurality and went on to be reelected six times before running for governor once again.
3. Inslee Was Among The ‘Poorest’ Members of Congress
Inslee’s net worth was estimated at $323,511 in 2010 during his last year in Congress by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. At the time, Inslee ranked as the 302nd richest member of Congress.
Since then, the Seattle Times reported in 2015, “Inslee’s financial life has remained relatively simple.”
Inslee has earned a $170,000 annual salary as governor as well as a $43,000 annual congressional pension. In 2015, the Inslees earned $219,000 and paid $34,000 in federal taxes, roughly a 15.5 percent tax rate. According to his tax returns, the Inslees have “little in the way of income from investments or interest on savings,” The Seattle Times reported.
Along with his income, Inslee also received a $12,000 life insurance payout after the death of his father Frank.
In 2012, the couple reported withdrawing $88,000 from a retirement account to pay for living expenses while Inslee ran for governor.
Trudi Inslee reported earning $34,000 in 2012 from consulting work for Island Press, which published Jay Inslee’s 2008 book “Apollo’s Fire,” about clean energy.
Between 2012 and 2015, the couple gave an average of $8,300 to charity. The charities they donated to included YouthCare and The Mockingbird Society, which help homeless youth and foster children.
4. Inslee Was Elected Governor of Washington in 2013
In 2012, Inslee edged out Republican Rob McKenna 51-49 to become governor of Washington. Washington has elected Democrats as governors in every election since 1980.
Inslee touted his opposition to the 2008 bailout of financial firms and his support for gay marriage before it was politically popular during the campaign. He also made it a point of reminding voters that he was among the few members of Congress to oppose the war in Iraq.
Inslee was reelected in 2016 by a 54-46 margin against Republican Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant.
Inslee made national headlines after he and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced they would sue President Donald Trump over his entry ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries. Inslee declared victory on February 16, after the Trump administration announced it would revise the ban.
Inslee went on to serve as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association for the 2018 election cycle. Democrats picked up seven new governor’s seats in the midterms.
5. Inslee is Running For President as The ‘Anti-Climate Change’ Candidate
Inslee is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. The Atlantic reported that he will focus on only one issue:
Inslee says he has one priority: global warming. It’s not theoretical, or a cause just for tree huggers anymore. Putting off dealing with it for a year or two or kicking it to some new bipartisan commission won’t work, he says. He plans to focus on the threat that climate change poses to the environment and national security—the mega-storms and fires causing millions in damages, the weather changes that will cause mass migrations, the droughts that will devastate farmers in America and around the world.
Inslee told The Atlantic that he believes there is “an appetite for someone who has credibility and a long track record and, most importantly, a vision statement. It’s changed to show an opening in a Democratic primary, I believe.”
“We have two existential threats right now: one is to our natural systems, and one is to our economic systems,” he said.
Inslee said his environmental platform would boost the economy. The Atlantic reported:
As he did in Washington State, Inslee would propose a mix of government investments and incentives to spur other investment, restrictions on power plants and emissions, and programs to promote R&D and job growth. An endless number of jobs can be created in the climate arena, Inslee says. It’s the way to make a real dent in income inequality and have the Democratic Party bring tangible solutions to communities in rural America that have been left behind. With his inaction, President Donald Trump—Inslee calls him “the commander in chief of delusion”—is engaged in a “disgusting selling-out of the country,” a “crime” against the aspirational optimism of America.
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