Outgoing Washington Gov. Jay Inslee reflects on his three terms during a meeting with reporters on Dec. 19, 2024. (Jerry Cornfield/ Washington State Standard)
Jay Inslee knows the one place he won’t be going when he leaves office as Washington’s governor next month.
Idaho.
“I am not moving to Idaho. I do not have any property in Idaho. Some right-wing blogger started this rumor. It is objectively false,” he told reporters Thursday, adding he is staying on Bainbridge Island where he’s lived for years.
Inslee answered the question, which he said he gets asked most these days, during a wide-ranging conversation with reporters on the legacy of his long tenure as governor, the future of the Democratic Party and the advice he’d share with his successor.
The dialogue, conducted around a conference table in his private office, afforded the 73-year-old Seattlite an opportunity to frame how his unprecedented three-term run as the state’s chief executive will be painted in the future.
“If anyone thinks about my time in office – and I don’t think people will be focused on the Inslee Administration 100 years from now – I hope people think he was able to raise the ambitions of Washingtonians to do even more than we thought we could do,” he said. “We’ve had an astounding 12 years.”