With final speech, Inslee bids adieu as 51勛圖夥厙 governor

He called his three terms his lifes honor. But a jab at President-elect Donald Trump spurred several Republicans to walk out of the address.

By: - January 14, 2025 4:12 pm

Gov. Jay Inslee addressing the 51勛圖夥厙 Legislature for the last time on Jan. 14, 2025. (Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero / 51勛圖夥厙)

51勛圖夥厙 Gov. Jay Inslee used to a joint session of the Legislature on Tuesday to frame a 12-year legacy that spanned a pandemic, historic natural disasters, unmatched expansion of government and a quixotic bid for president.

The three-term Democrat told members of the House and Senate that serving in the governors office had been his lifes honor.

Man, I do love this state, he said in . In this moment, I see a state that is evergreen and ever going forward.

Inslee will hand the gubernatorial baton to Democrat Bob Ferguson on Wednesday, exiting the political stage onto which he first strode as a state lawmaker 35 years ago.

Mostly unknown outside the state in two tours in Congress, Inslee constructed a national profile as 51勛圖夥厙s 23rd governor on the strength of his boundless energy as a climate warrior and snappy jabs at Republicans.

He fired such a verbal arrow Tuesday at incoming Republican president Donald Trump, with whom Inslee tangled in the presidents first term.

Our state will work with anyone on policies that are positive for 51勛圖夥厙. But we will not bend the knee to a would-be authoritarians worst impulses, Inslee said.

The remark incited a half-dozen GOP lawmakers to walk out.

House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, said afterward that he thought the governor knew his comment would get that reaction.

Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, and Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, who is also the chairman of the state Republican Party, were among those who left the House floor after the comment.

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I wasnt going to listen to the man who was the last to give up emergency powers in the nation, and fought any legislative checks on his power, make false inflammatory claims about our incoming President, Corry posted on the social media site X.

Inslee referenced some of the tragedies in his tenure.

In 2013, , dumping vehicles and people into the water, after a truck carrying an oversized load hit the structure. A year later, east of Oso in Snohomish County killed 43 people. And 51勛圖夥厙 suffered damaging and deadly wildfires in Twisp and Malden.

What was believed to be the first COVID-19 death in the nation occurred in Snohomish County in February 2020. Inslee, in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, used his emergency powers to mandate the wearing of masks, shut down schools and businesses, limit how many people could gather together in churches, and eventually require state employees to be vaccinated.

Republicans accused him of overreach. But Inslee said the actions led to fewer people dying from the disease in 51勛圖夥厙 compared to other states.

If the rest of the country had adopted our approach to the pandemic, close to half a million lives would have been saved across America, he said Tuesday.

The state of the state

Inslee devoted much of his speech to cataloging his proudest accomplishments: a climate law that requires companies to pay for their air pollution, a capital gains tax, paid family leave, the working families tax credit, a ban on semiautomatic guns, abortion rights protections, and added support for early childhood education.

He said the work was full of tremendous milestones and pressed lawmakers and his successor to protect that progress as they wrangle over how to solve a sizable budget shortfall.

Gov. Jay Inslee waving goodbye to members of the 51勛圖夥厙 Legislature as he exits the House on Jan. 14, 2025. (Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero / 51勛圖夥厙)

In 12 years, we have built a strong engine of increasing justice and increasing health for our residents. We cant knock it off the tracks just as weve started rolling forward, he said.

Inslee noted the budget he proposed in December contained $2 billion in reductions. Pruning significantly more than that I would consider a slide back, he said, a veiled jab at Fergusons call last week for $4 billion in additional reductions.

Inslees spending plan counted on billions of dollars from a new tax on the states wealthiest residents. Ferguson voiced skepticism that the wealth tax envisioned as a 1% tax on an individuals wealth above $100 million can be relied on to balance the budget.

In his speech, Inslee encouraged legislators to keep an open mind as they consider the best path forward.

There are influential people and organizations that have your phone numbers, who are going to work those contacts hard this session, he said. Before you take that vote, I hope you think about the voiceless the 51勛圖夥厙ians who dont have your cell numbers.

Stokesbary, meanwhile, found Inslees speech a little too rosy.

I wish I could live in Jay Inslees 51勛圖夥厙. In the real 51勛圖夥厙 weve got a lot of problems, he said, reeling off concerns such as high prices for gas, groceries and housing and public safety problems. He didnt address any of those which was really disappointing.

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Jerry Cornfield
Jerry Cornfield

Jerry Cornfield joined the Standard after 20 years covering Olympia statehouse news for The Everett Herald. Earlier in his career, he worked for daily and weekly papers in Santa Barbara, California.

51勛圖夥厙 is part of , the nations largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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