Jay Inslee Wants You To Think Of His Presidential Campaign When You Think Of Climate Change

"I'm Jay Inslee; I'm running for president because I'm the only only candidate who will make defeating climate change our nation's number one priority." So who is he? H was elected governor of Washington in 2012. He was elected to the state legislature in 1988 and then to Congress in 1992 where he was defeated after serving one term. He was reelected though in 1998 in a bluer district and was reelected 6 times (as a New Dem) before being elected governor. He was a Green New Deal proponent before anyone came up with the name Green New Deal.

He announced his candidacy, just as Hart Research announced the results of a new poll they had done of likely Democratic primary voters in California, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina for the Environmental Defense Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters and the Center for American Progress. Their survey shows that only universal health care coverage is more important to these voters than address the climate crisis. A key finding seems tailor-made for Inslee: "Taking action on climate change is a key motivating issue for Democratic primary voters in early states. Having a plan to address the climate crisis is seen as essential and is a driver of vote choice... [C]limate change is a top tier issue in four of the five early states, including 55% of voters in Iowa naming as important to deciding which candidate to support, 54% in New Hampshire, 49% in California and 46% in Nevada. Only in South Carolina does climate change fall out of the top tier of issues and even then, 27% still say it is important in their decision-making."

When asked about seven different issues, 84% say it is “very important" that a Democratic candidate for President have a clear plan on “taking action on climate change crisis and moving the United States to 100% clean energy” including 42% saying it is “essential.” This is on par with “ensuring equal rights for women” (91% very important; 43% essential) and “combating racism and promoting racial justice” (87% very important, 42% essential). A plan for acting on climate change was tied with “achieving universal health care” (84%) and was closely followed by “raising wages and incomes for working families” (83%), “passing stronger policies to prevent gun violence” (81%), and “providing a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other immigrants” (74%). Moreover, having a presidential candidate who has a clear plan to address the climate crisis is slightly more important to Latinx voters (87%) and voters under age 35 (87%).

The profile of early primary voters who say that having a plan to address climate change is essential for a presidential candidate (42% percent of the voters in early primary states) is reflective of the broad Democratic universe, rather than being some niche group. The likelihood of rating addressing climate change as essential for a Democratic presidential candidate increases the more liberal the voter and the higher their educational attainment. That is, the most liberal and best educated voters are the most likely to say that it is essential that a presidential candidate have a plan for addressing the climate crisis. Importantly, these voters are largely up for grabs as 73% say they have not really narrowed down their choice for president even though 80% are previous primary voters/caucus-goers.

Sizeable majorities view the Green New Deal favorably (74% favorable; 54% very favorable) as well as Moving to 100% clean energy by 2050 (82% favorable; 62% very favorable). This chart shows the breakdown of how important it is to voters that a candidate support the Green New Deal (which Pelosi is still making fun of and probably feels as alienated from as Trump and other septuagenarian and octogenarian DC insiders):

Referring to the book he co-authored with Bracken Hendricks in 2007, Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy, he likes telling people he "wrote the Green New Deal ten years ago. Welcome to the party. I'm very happy that some other candidates are talking about climate change. It's a good thing." Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Eric Swalwell and even Amy Klobuchar are co-sponsors of the Green New Deal resolution in Congress. This promotional clip for Apollo's Fire was made in 2007: