—Washington State
Governor Jay Inslee has recently announced his resignation in the 2020 race to the white house. While being interviewed on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, Inslee stated
"It's become clear that I'm not going to be carrying the ball, I'm not going to be the president so I’m withdrawing tonight from the race," he told Maddow.
Inslee’s main presidential focus was the increasing threat of climate change. Inslee told Rachel Maddow
“I’ve been fighting climate change for 25 years and I’ve never been so confidante of the ability of Americans now to reach critical mass to move the ball. I believe we are going to have a candidate to fight this battle.”
“This is our moment to put the greatest threat to our existence, to our economy, to our health, at the very top of the nation’s agenda,” Inslee said in March at his campaign’s kickoff event in Downtown Seattle.
Inslee put out a detailed 10-year plan on how he’d move the country to clean energy, spurring other candidates to put out their own plans. Butting heads with the Democratic National Committee, he demanded that the organization hold a debate focused on climate change. The DNC rebuffed his pleas in June, but CNN announced soon afterthat it would hold a town hall on the issue with the 2020 candidates in September.
Inslee, however, did not meet the polling criteria the network used for the event a minimum of 2 percent in four DNC-recognized polls and was not on the list of attendees the network announced on Tuesday.
While Inslee said Monday that he had reached the 130,000 donation threshold for the next Democratic debate in September,his lack of qualifying polls would likely have kept him from the debate stage as well.
Inslee told Maddow he hopes other candidates can make use of his climate plan, which he said has been called "the gold standard." He declined on Wednesday to throw support behind another candidate, but said,
"I'm going to endorse the Democrat nominee, no matter who it is."
Other 2020 candidates were quick to praise his efforts.