Washington governor Jay Inslee is running in 2020 as the first climate change candidate

The Democratic field in 2020 got a little more crowded — and someone is finally putting climate change center stage.

Washington governor Jay Inslee announced on Friday that he will seek the Democratic nomination for president. But what really sets Inslee apart is his  commitment to being the climate change candidate. In fact, Inslee seems to be the first major candidate in U.S. history to make climate change his main platform for running. 

The main mission statement on Inslee’s campaign website is all about climate change, but it also illustrates how it can affect a large range of other issues, including the economy and national security.

Inslee is not a newcomer to the issue, by any means. In 2009, while serving as a congressman for Washington’s First District, he co-authored the book Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Energy Economy with Bracken Hendricks, founder of the Apollo Alliance, which pushes for a “sustainable environment and economy.” 

In 2017, as governor of Washington, he helped found the United States Climate Alliance, which describes itself as “a bipartisan coalition of governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement.” Currently, the group boasts support from 22 governors (including Puerto Rico). 

He’s also made notable pushes that have failed, showing his willingness to be tenacious about sticking to his climate change platform. A proposed carbon tax fell short in the Washington state legislature last March, and in November voters rejected a proposed carbon fee on fossil fuel emissions. 

Climate change has been very much a part of Democrats’ platform. The Green New Deal is a huge piece of legislation being pushed for by the new Democratic-controlled House. (Inslee supports the legislation). But Inslee is certainly the first candidate to make climate change the centerpiece of his campaign.

Speaking to Rolling Stone‘s Andy Kroll for a profile that ran in coordination with his announcement, Inslee said:

“A lot of these candidates want to check the box,” he tells me. But one sentence in their campaign-launch events doesn’t solve this problem. “This has to be the number-one priority of the United States,” he insists. “Every agency has to be on board, and it has to take priority over everything else we do. You have to build a mandate for this during the campaign, and you have to express a willingness to spend your political capital to get this done. I think too many other candidates are going to say, ‘I’m for the Green New Deal, and now I’m done.’ That just doesn’t cut it.”

So now that 2020 has its climate candidate, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. Inslee may not have the public profile of, say, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, but there’s a real possibility that his platform could catch on or at least push other candidates to elevate the issue in their own campaigns.