‘One chance at survival’: Jay Inslee is running for president to fight climate change

There are other things around which Washington governor Jay Inslee could craft his stump speech. He could talk about how he dropped out of Stanford and moved into his parents’ basement because he couldn’t afford tuition. He could tell voters he was the first governor to challenge Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban.

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These things are mentioned when he talks to voters as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. But from its announcement at a Seattle solar panel installation company, his campaign has remained laser-focused on fighting climate change.

The 68-year-old says climate change is the reason he is running for president and he speaks of it as an imminent threat to the US and the world. Other issues matter but Inslee says America cannot afford to have another leader who does not have climate change as their top priority.

“We have exactly one chance left to defeat climate change – and that’s during the next administration,” he told a crowd in a living room in Bedford on Saturday morning. “And when you have one chance at survival, we ought to take it.”

Climate change is not a fringe issue in the Democratic party. While other candidates may not devote the majority of their speeches to it, they all speak of it as an urgent if not existential issue that must be tackled in the next administration.

Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke has compared those fighting climate change to the troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy and warned Iowa voters that the planet has just 12 years left to avert disaster. Former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro has said his first executive order will be to return the US to the Paris climate accord. When New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced her Green New Deal legislation, many candidates lined up to support it.

Inslee says climate change cannot just be a box to be ticked – that if climate change is not the top priority, nothing will be done.

“I wonder the difference between talk and action,” he said on Saturday. “Between bumper stickers and productive accomplishments. It can’t be just one of those things on your to-do list. It has to be a full-scale, full-throated commitment to get this job done.”

Asked by the Guardian if the election of another Democrat would mean the US would miss its “one chance” to fight climate change, he said: “If it’s not job one, it won’t get done. And I’m the only candidate that’s saying that right now.”

In his pitch to voters, Inslee leans heavily on his experience as governor, painting himself as a man who knows how to lead and who has overseen an economic boom and environmental reform.

“I’ve been a governor,” he told a crowd at a town hall meeting in Exeter, later on Saturday. “And I’ve actually got things done instead of just talking about it. I’ve learned that getting things done is different than giving speeches. What I’ve learned is that executive experience is something that is really important when it comes to getting things done.”

Inslee says fighting climate change offers economic promise, that clean energy will create millions of jobs. In Bedford, he told voters the “vast bulk” of money invested in clean energy will come from private equity markets, not taxpayers.

“What we need to do is embrace policies that will help drive private equity into these industries,” he said.

Such investment and job creation is already happening in Washington state, he said, as it pushes towards clean energy.

Super Pacs and filibusters

Inslee has not just set himself apart from other Democrats by being a single-issue candidate. He has also broken ranks on a hot-button congressional issue.

To successfully fight climate change, Inslee says, the Senate must eliminate the filibuster, which allows senators to require a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation. He says majority leader Mitch McConnell has turned it into a “weaponised system to prevent progressive change”. Other candidates have either declined to endorse instituting the nuclear option or have said they oppose it.

Furthermore, as candidates have largely patted one another on the back so far, even when they disagree on policies, without naming names Inslee has appeared to suggest some of his competitors’ commitments to combating climate change will not result in action.

He also breaks with other candidates in his willingness to accept money from Super Pacs, organisations that can provide unlimited funding so long as they do not coordinate with candidates.

Other candidates pledge not to take money from Super Pacs but Inslee has said he will not turn down funds from those which really want to fight climate change. He has pledged, however, not to accept any money from the fossil fuel industry or corporate political action committees.

Last month, the Super Pac Act Now on Climate was formed to support Inslee’s run. So far, it has spent more than $1m on ad buys. Inslee lacks name recognition and barely registers in the polls, so such assistance could give him a much needed leg-up in early primary states. But it also runs the risk of opening him up to attacks as Democrats try to outdo one another in presenting their campaigns as unbeholden to outside groups.

His decision to accept Super Pac money was condemned by the group End Citizens United. In a letter directed at Inslee, the group called single-candidate Super Pacs like Act Now on Climate “even worse than Super Pacs themselves”.

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In Bedford, Harlan Cutshall, 25, had driven from Boston to see Inslee speak.

“I appreciate his focus on climate change and making that the centrality of his campaign,” he said. “I think that’s really needed in this debate in 2020. I think this is the defining issue of our time … everyone needs to be taking it very seriously and talking about it sensibly.”

Jennifer Stitt, 55, said she was impressed but wanted to learn more about Inslee’s position on other subjects.

“I want to hear how he truly intends to approach foreign affairs and cutting our debt,” she said. “I want to see him being able to respond to a more complete platform with a little bit more detail.”

In Exeter, Barbara Berman, 66, said Inslee’s climate change message could prove powerful.

“If he can roll it into improving the infrastructure and all that, we might have a winner,” she said. “It kind of sets him apart.”