Jay Inslee: The Longest Serving Governor in America
We were honored to talk with Governor Jay Inslee about the Reproductive Freedom Alliance and the other good work he’s doing in Washington State.
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TRANSCRIPT
Sarah [00:00:07] This is Sarah Stewart Holland.
Beth [00:00:09] This is Beth Silvers.
Sarah [00:00:10] You're listening to Pantsuit Politics.
Beth [00:00:12] Where we take a different approach to the news.
[00:00:14] Music Interlude.
Sarah [00:00:29] Thank you for joining us today. We are so honored to be in conversation with the Governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee. Governor Inslee joined us to talk about his participation in the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, a group of governors who are coming together to share strategies and ideas on how to better protect reproductive rights in their respective states. But we talk about so much more than that. We talk about the lessons he learned from the Covid war. We talk about climate change. He even joined us Outside Politics to share the fact that he illustrates books for his holiday Christmas card list. You know we're Christmas card devotees here at Pantsuit Politics, so we were very excited to add him to the club.
Beth [00:01:09] Before we share that conversation with Governor Inslee, we want to invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn. Look, we have been very harsh about social media on our show lately, but there is so much value in being able to share what we do and to hear back from you easily and seamlessly. And LinkedIn is a great place for us to connect. If you are trying to convince an organization that you're part of that we would be good speakers for an event that's coming up anytime in the near future, LinkedIn is a great place to connect with us and showcase what we're about, how we do what we do, and what we're up to lately. So if you are on LinkedIn, we would love to connect with you there.
Sarah [00:01:45] Next up, Governor Jay Inslee.
[00:01:46] Music Interlude.
Beth [00:01:56] Governor Inslee, thank you so much for spending time with us today. We wanted to start with your participation in the Reproductive Freedom Alliance. You're part of this group of 20 governors formed after the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade. Will you just tell us about how that group came together and what kind of work happens within it?
Governor Inslee [00:02:12] Well, it's a recognition of the fact that there is a multi-decade effort to take away this constitutional right from Americans and that governors can play a very important role on, in many, many ways, fighting that effort. And it came together because people recognize in some sense, regardless what happened in the Supreme Court decision, there is and will continue to be an effort to take away this right. It's centered in the Republican Party, and these are governors who have banded together to share ideas on how we can continue to preserve this right. And we have found very creative ways to do that on mifepristone. As you know, in my state, we've purchased at three years supply ahead of the curve. It's efforts to have shield laws to prevent other states from reaching into our state with their tentacles, to try to prosecute physicians and or women for things that are legal in our state. It's privacy protections that will prevent people from using the internet to get access to data, which can help target women in our states. So there's multiple creative things we can do, almost independent of what the Supreme Court decides. And we have known this for a long time. There is kind of a camouflage effort to hide this, but this is going to be a multidecadal effort. It demands governors who will be creative, innovative. And so this group, we help each other in that regard.
Sarah [00:03:39] I think that's so smart. We always talk about states as the laboratories of legislation and to say like, well, yes, and we're doing this, so how can we join forces and use our creative efforts together? I know you mentioned mifepristone, and the alliances filed an amicus brief in the upcoming Supreme Court case. Can you tell us a little bit about that case and why a group of governors are involved in that?
Governor Inslee [00:04:00] Well, this is perhaps the perfect example about how the forces who want to strip women of this right really want to go backwards when it comes to our society's evolution or scientific evolution. Here we have a very safe product. It is enjoyed by millions of Americans. It has been demonstrated to be safe and extremely non-intrusive, if you will. It reduces the trauma women are associated with ending a pregnancy. It is safe. It is reasonably priced. It is scientifically credible. And yet these forces want to drag us back 100 years or so to ignore the clear science. And it's a perfect example that, frankly, a lot of these folks want to reject science and they reject the benefits of science. Here we're given sort of this wonderful consciousness to be able to use our brains to develop better scientific procedures, and they want to ignore that and destroy the ability to use our intellectual capabilities for the benefit of women. And it's a sad commentary. Now, there's some sort of overlap with that, with climate change and Covid and rejections of medicine and science, which is unfortunate, but it's maybe the worst case scenario of how folks want to go backwards 100 years. So in our state, as you know, we when we saw this coming, I issued an order. Essentially, I used some governor's authority to buy about three years supply so that we actually have supply in the state available to us to try to prevent these forces from stopping women in Washington from getting access to this. We hope that will not be necessary depending on what happens in the courts. But if it is, we'll have that stock available. And we think that we will be successful if that happens. Even with the Comstock Act, we think there's ways to distribute, at least within our state.
Sarah [00:06:01] Yeah. You wouldn't be crossing state borders.
Governor Inslee [00:06:03] Yeah. If it doesn't cross state borders, we think we'll clear the Comstock Act. So even in worst case scenario, we think that this will be available. Now, that's three years supply. What happens after three years? Hopefully, the elections can kick in, people will vote-- not just women, but men-- and care about this issue. This is one of the great, I think, misnomers of the politics of this issue, that men understand the importance of this privacy right to their daughters and their nieces and their wives and their friends. And at that point, we hope that people will vote. I think this will happen, actually, if people start to understand the consequences of voting for Republicans this year is the end of privacy for women. If you want to vote for the Republican Party anywhere, up and down the ticket doesn't matter what office it is, that is a political party that is under the thumb of those who want to take away this right from women. And that's just a political reality we have to realize.
Beth [00:07:02] And your actions in this alliance really showcase the importance of electing people who believe in this right at the state level, not just in national politics but within the state, to allow you to do these things.
Governor Inslee [00:07:13] There is kind of a syndrome where we only pay attention to national politics because it's the headline news on our national. And we've had a reduction in local news, as you know, and it really has handicapped our ability to understand how you can make progress at a state level. We on the pro-choice, pro-environment, pro-working family side of some of these debates are sort of awakening to that fact and understanding how important state legislative races are and governors races. Certainly, governors races are important and state legislatures on a national basis too because of the gerrymandering that goes on at the state level, that affects the Congress as well. So on multiple of these issues, including this one, here's a way to advance women's right, this constitutional right of freedom. And as a freedom right, this is the ultimate intrusion by government ordering a person what to do with their body. That is the ultimate intrusion in a person's freedom and liberty for control of their own lives. And so this is maybe the most important freedom that now we must protect. So I think your point is states are extremely important. Every vote is critical up and down the ballot. And we're awakening to this, frankly. We've got the Republicans to get the jump on us for maybe a decade or two ago on this long term effort to strip away of women's rights. We're now engaged in that. The 20 governors that you've talked about is one indication of that. So voting up and down the ticket is pretty important.
Sarah [00:08:51] I want to pick up two threads you mentioned. One, what we were just talking about; the importance of states and the importance of law to sort of state efforts, including around scientific issues like Covid. You really took the lead during the pandemic. Your state was one of the first affected. We were watching what you were doing in Kentucky, and I know other parts of the country were because there was a lack of a federal response. So the state efforts to go on increasing importance. We just had Doctor Charity Dean from the Covid Crisis Group on to talk about their report, Lessons from the Covid War. And we wanted to ask you, what lessons did you learn from the Covid war as far as state responses following the science? As you look back, what really lessons did you learn and are you thinking about when you're facing these other sort of scientific debates, rights debates, state efforts?
Governor Inslee [00:09:41] Well, first I learned about the blessings of science. Look, this was a scientific miracle to come up with this vaccine in such a short order, which saved thousands and thousands and thousands of lives. I think the first thing I learned is how brilliant humans are to create a self-protective measure because we follow the science. So that's the first thing, is understand how important science is and how beneficial it can be. Second, I learned about how damaging it can be to your people if leaders lead their flock astray and reject the science. When the then sitting president kind of urged people to use horse medicine and bleach, it led thousands of people to drop the ability to use this blessing of science. And it was a huge tragedy. Many people lost their lives because of it. It was very, very sad. We embraced science in our state, and that is why we had a fatality rate that is relatively low. It's one of the lowest in the country. The other thing I will say is that there's consequences for poor leadership. I'll give you an example. So if we had not done some of the things we did to reduce the infection rate, if we had the same infection rate and fatality rate as Mississippi, I would have had in my state an additional 18,000 people lose their lives if we had not done some of the things that science indicated we should do. And I guess one lesson is there's consequences for ignoring science. There's consequences for having leaders who are willing to think more like a cult and less like a physician or a scientist. The other thing, I think, is that when people pull together, we can do big things. People pulled together in our state. We helped each other. We tried to support small businesses through the very difficult times that they had and people pulled together, and that's a good thing to see.
[00:11:43] The other thing is, I just talked to you about how painful it is to lose people. We lost people. We lost the state legislator who refused to get vaccinated. We lost a state trooper who refused to get vaccinated. And they lost their lives. And it just so painful and I know their families to have lost a loved one like that based on bad, poor leadership coming out of the white House at the time in part. Now, that's not the only place it was coming from. And I think there's a theme here that's really disappointing to me. We have so many things that should not be controversial. That where there should not be Partisan arguments. There's just no reason to be arguing about the laws of gravity. Democrats and Republicans should both accept the laws of gravity. And if we do, we'll make good decisions. Both should accept the science of Covid in the vaccine. There's no reason to have a debate about that. Both should accept the benefits of mifepristone on a scientific basis and the fact that it's a safe product. Both should accept the science of climate change. There's no argument about the basic facts, that carbon dioxide and methane are really dangerous to us right now. These are scientific facts that it would just be a wonderful world if we could all embrace them and then argue about the right approach. There's really legitimate arguments. What's the best way to approach climate? What's the best way to distribute vaccines? There's lots of arguments about the best policies that are legitimate between the two parties. But the fact that we have one party that is refusing to accept accepted, known, inarguable science, is a problem for us from a health perspective. And it's disappointing, frankly because it's almost unique to our nation. They don't argue about this in Europe. They have conservative and progressive parties. They argue about policy, but they don't argue about the science. And it's disappointing. I keep waiting for bipartisanship to spring forth like the tulips this spring. Maybe it'll happen, I keep waiting.
[00:13:55] Music Interlude.
Beth [00:14:04] I want to ask you about climate. I know that you've just signed into law a measure that links Washington's carbon market with California and Quebec. I would love to hear about that. And for those of us in states that are not moving on climate change at the pace and scale that Washington has moved, can you give us some foundational knowledge about that emissions auction, about the market that you all have created to try to to bring some policy to this issue?
Governor Inslee [00:14:27] I will try to, but I tend to get going on too long. So you cut me off [crosstalk].
Sarah [00:14:33] You're the climate governor, makes sense.
Governor Inslee [00:14:35] To start from the beginning, my state is being ravaged by climate change today. This is not 100 years from now- it's today. The forest fires that are burning through my state, the smoke has been so intense that our children literally cannot go outside sometimes in August and September. Our water temperatures are now going up so high that literally salmon cannot survive because of the heat of the water. We're getting torrential rain storms. It rains a lot in Seattle, right? But now it's turned into these torrential rain storms that are causing mudslides and flooding. So my state today is being ravaged by climate change. And we are intent to not allow to surrender to climate change. We intend to fight it. And we have a variety of policies that are allowing us to do this. And basically it's helping Washingtonians transition into industrial and transportation systems that are not polluting, that we're not putting these toxic, dangerous gases into the air. And these are dangerous particulate matters. When you burn diesel or when you burn coal, you're putting particulate matters that are dangerous to our kids health. In fact, it's interesting in some of our counties where we have high pollution rates, our average lifespan is two and a half years lower than the rest of the state of Washington. So this is very much a health issue. And what we're doing is we have a suite of laws that are helping Washingtonians transition away from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy towards electric cars, towards electric school busses, helping people get air filtration systems in our schools so that the kids can breathe during this smoky situation, getting people more insulation and heat pumps.
[00:16:15] And one of those laws is the one you've referred to, it's our capital invest bill. We call it the Climate Commitment Act. And what it does is a couple things. One, it puts a limit on pollution. And that's the single most important thing it does. It basically says we're not going to allow pollution over a certain number of tons in our state, period. And that's the most important thing it does. And then it allocates the right to have that tonnage of pollution in an auction system that polluting industries have to bid so that polluters pay for their pollution. And that money then is recycled back to Washingtonians to help on the things I've talked about. Get electric school busses, get free bus rides for kids to go to school. We have 8 million rides now that have been free because of this act now for kids, and we're very successful in helping Washingtonians in that transition. The law that you talked about is we now want to link our market. This is a market where there's an auction for these permits. We want to link our market ultimately with California and Quebec. And the reason for that is we think it can restrain the cost of compliance, the cost it costs to buy these permits. And so we think having a linkage will moderate the cost associated with the program. The price went down about 50% in the last auction, which I think is a beneficial thing. It's really an important thing for the future of our state. It's being challenged. There's an issue on the ballot. A rich hedge fund manager from California that don't pay taxes ever for anything, don't really care about kids education, doesn't care about kids lungs, doesn't care about climate change and denies it all. He's trying to repeal it. So we'll be active this year discussing this.
Sarah [00:18:00] Now, you're the longest serving governor in office right now. Just a very impressive title to hold. And I'm wondering as you look at all these issues and you look at the balance between state action and federal action, where do you say this is best done by governors, and where do you see things where you're like, man, I wish we could roll this out nationwide?
Governor Inslee [00:18:20] We have proposed moving the nation's capital to Starbuck, Washington, so that we can get all of our policies on a national basis. Truth be told, I'm trying to think everything that we've done in Washington state would benefit the nation, frankly. We have the best financial aid package, for instance, for our students to reduce their debt. Number one in the nation, we're very proud of that. We have the best paid family medical leave, which has been super successful for people who want to have children, who have an illness in the family, to allow them to take time to be with their family. It's been a super policy. We've been very aggressive in multiple ways on clean air and clean water, some of which are in the climate laws we've talked about. We've been very protective of women's rights and bringing equity to our society in many, many different ways. So we're proud of the policies we have in Washington. I can't think of any of them that would not be beneficial nationwide. So if Congress should just pass a law and said, we're with Washington State, whatever they do, we're going to make it national--
Sarah [00:19:30] You're much more productive with 300 plus--
Governor Inslee [00:19:32] Very productive situation.
Sarah [00:19:33] Yeah, 300 plus laws. They've done like 30, what, 25? something like that.
Governor Inslee [00:19:37] There you go. But also here's an important point too. This is not just an issue of equity and health. It's an issue of economic growth. We have one of the best economies in the country, in part because we have embraced these policies. Companies want to come here because their employees want to live here, to have these suite of protections of their health and their family's security and their privacy. They like to have a good environment. And so our economy has just been booming, in part because of clean energy by the way. We have a huge number of companies that are developing clean energy sources. We're the world's leading battery manufacturers in Grant County. We are one of the world's leading fuel cell developers. And in Seattle, largest solar panel manufacturer in the Western Hemisphere, I think, in Bellingham, Washington. So this has been an economic success story of these policies that we've adopted. And I point this out because some of the folks that want to go backwards on social policy, want to take away a women's rights, want to not respect people in their LGBTQ identity, want to sort of demonize people of a different race, those folks argue that when we protect justice and health, it will hurt the economy. It's exactly the opposite. It helps economic growth. And we have demonstrated that big time. And we're glad it's being shared nationally. I think it's great that we have some of the auto industry now coming into the South. Some of the battery manufacturing companies are going into Georgia. This is really a good thing. We're seeing some of that expansion economically by embracing the future in science.
Beth [00:21:13] I'm struck listening to you talk about this breadth of issues by the fact that I read that you began your political career working on a local school issue. And a lot of people listening are at that stage where they have kids in elementary school or middle school. They're thinking about contributing to their civic life more and differently. I wonder what advice you would give to people at that stage, looking back over your career from this place where you now work on gun violence and climate and economic growth and following the science?
Governor Inslee [00:21:44] Well, I guess I would say that involvement is a joy, and involvement in your local issues can be very fulfilling and productive. Trudy and I got involved. I'd never thought about being in public life. I was in my middle or late 30s. I was a practicing lawyer. I was growing hay and three boys in the Sagebrush in Yakima Valley. And they were going to start have to double shift our high school because it was just full. It didn't have room, and people were going to have to get up at 4:00 in the morning. And Trudy and I said, well, that's crazy. Let's build another high school. Why don't we do that? And we were kind of new in town. And people said, well, we have failed five bond issues to try to build a new high school in a row, and nobody else wanted to try again. Well, we were young and naive and a little bit foolish. So we said, well, let's give it a go. So we get another couple, and Trudy and I, we just kind of started a campaign to pass the school bond issue, and we passed it like on our sixth try. And weeks later, the knuckleheads in the legislature changed the funding formula to cut in half the money we were going to get from the state to build this high school. And so here Trudy and I and our friends had gone out and ask our neighbors to support this bond issue, and then it was cut in half. So I just decided to go raise hell in their capital, which we did. And Trudy basically said, well, you might as well go to the legislature if you really want to do something. And we were off to the races. And it has been a very fulfilling endeavor because you can make a difference at any level of public policy. And I encourage people in part because it's fun. You meet new friends, your juices get going, you become connected to your community. When I became a legislator, I knocked on 24,000 doors when I ran for the state legislature. I was a Democrat in a very, very heavily Republican area. Didn't have a [inaudible] at winning. I knew my neighborhood so much better when I became engaged in it. So I guess what I would say is, come on in, the water's fine and I think you'll enjoy it. You may not always win. I have lost-- how many elections I've lost? At least three. And so during my time in office-- but, ultimately, good things happen.
Sarah [00:24:05] That's awesome.
[00:24:06] Music Interlude.
[00:24:15] We always close our show with talking about something Outside of Politics, and your official bio mentions that you write and illustrate books for your grandchildren, and we must know more about that. We want to hear about these books and what you're doing.
Governor Inslee [00:24:27] Well, years back, I don't know how-- actually, I do know how this started. I did this little kind of book on pieces of cardboard for my two nephews, and then the next year we did a holiday book that was more actually published. So Trudy and I write a holiday book every year for our grandkids and all of our friends kids. And it usually has kind of a gnome or elf theme of some sort. One of our favorite ones was called Bears in the Boat. You guys have seen the movie Boys in the Boat? Have you seen the movie-- George Clooney, good Kentucky boy.
Sarah [00:25:05] Yeah, that's exactly right.
Governor Inslee [00:25:07] I got to meet him at one of the premiere of Boys in the Boat here. Wonderful guy. Did you know that George Clooney used to be a caricature at the Kentucky State Fair. Did you know that?
Sarah [00:25:17] I did not know that.
Beth [00:25:18] No.
Governor Inslee [00:25:19] That's how he started his entertainment career, he told me. Anyway, so our Bears in the Boat was about bears paddling in like a tribal community canoe from Bainbridge Island, Washington, to Olympia to meet the governor. And so these bears paddle down, and then they meet the governor who's a bear. And I named all the bears after my grandchildren and my children. And the governor's name was Chase. It was a big brown bear named Chase. And this is my favorite illustration I've ever done. It shows the big bear at the governor's desk right here with a little sign says governor. And Chase at the time was my youngest grandchild. The reason I'm telling you this is he was four at the time, I think, when that book came out. Until age 10 (because he's 10 now) he believed he was the junior governor. And so it shows you the power of holiday books.
Sarah [00:26:16] Well, I want to get on your holiday list. That sounds amazing.
Governor Inslee [00:26:19] Well, it may be a possibility. We'll see.
Sarah [00:26:20] We love our Christmas cards here at Pantsuit Politics. That's a real commitment in our community. We are dedicated Christmas mailers here at the Pantsuit Politics.
Governor Inslee [00:26:28] Well, we'll see. We might get you on the list if you really, really want to.
Sarah [00:26:31] I love it.
Beth [00:26:32] Well, governor, we understand that you have got to go sign some bills. Thank you so much for spending time with us in the midst of a busy legislative season, and for all that you're doing with the Reproductive Freedom Alliance.
Governor Inslee [00:26:42] Well, and thank you for spreading the good news from the heartland. We love hearing your voices from Kentucky. It's really great. So congratulations.
Sarah [00:26:48] Always. Again, thank you to Governor Jay Inslee for joining us today. We are so delighted to have you all here and that you shared precious moments of your life listening to our show. We hope you enjoyed this episode. It's always an honor to have elected officials take time out of their busy schedule to join us, and we hope you'll share this episode so more people can hear it. We'll be back in your ears on Friday, and until then, keep it nuanced y'all.
[00:27:25] Music Interlude.
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