Gov. Inslee’s presidential campaign kicks off with media blitz

Washington Governor Jay Inslee is reporting initial success as his presidential campaign gets underway, and he embarks on a media blitz.

In a tweet, Inslee said that it only took hours from his campaign announcement for donations to start pouring in.

“I’ve been a candidate to be the next President of the Unites States for about three hours now, and I’m really happy to report that we now have contributors from all 50 states, and that is gratifying to me because I really do believe our clean energy message is one that can produce clean energy jobs in every single state…” he said.

We’re three hours in, and our climate movement now has contributions from every state! This is #OurClimateMoment — together, we can defeat climate change! pic.twitter.com/KyaxfKb071

— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) March 2, 2019

After making his official jump into the 2020 presidential race, Inslee made the national media rounds to talk about his core issue — climate change.

In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Inslee responded to some Trump tweets. He says he’s not worried about the president’s criticism of his climate change platform and called the president “pessimistic.”

“We are the optimists in this debate,” Inslee said. “We know that we can invent, and create, and build a clean energy economy. We know we can do that because we are doing that in my state where we have built a wind turbine industry from zero to $6 billion in 12 years.”

He also said that despite his inability to pass a carbon fee — twice — in Washington state, he believes other steps he’s taken to combat climate change are proof of his success.

“There are multiple tools in our toolbox,” Inslee said. “This is good news. It’s good news that we don’t have to depend on just one tool. We are exercising multiple tools that are working. Our renewable portfolio … as I said, developed a $6 billion wind industry in 12 years.”

Inslee appeared on The View Monday.