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Dori: Jay Inslee now has a shot at more than 1 percent, thanks to AOC

May 20, 2019, 1:16 PM

Jay Inslee...

(Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

(Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

I thought that Jay Inslee would have to drop out of the race because he has just kept languishing around 1 percent.

The more national press he gets, the more of a non-factor he becomes because he is just so incredibly boring. The more people hear from him, not the more they hate him, but the more apathetic they become. That’s the opposite of love — apathy.

Guess what? Jay Inslee is now seriously a player in the Democratic presidential primaries. He is going to get above 1 percent now. Why?

This weekend, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez threw her following to Jay Inslee in a tweet. It was not directly an endorsement, but it was pretty complimentary of him.

RELATED: CNN’s Inslee town hall was just embarrassing

This came after Jay Inslee released his $9 trillion climate plan a week ago. If you figure that out of the 140 million people who file federal income tax, about 70 million — the top 50 percent of earners — end up paying, then it would cost each federal income taxpayer $126,000. It is an economically crippling plan.

The biggest winner in all of this is not Jay Inslee. It’s Donald Trump.

If there was a way that Inslee could gain enough momentum to get the Democratic nomination, I truly believe it would be the first time in history that a president won all 50 states. I think Trump would even beat Inslee here in Washington, once the nation saw what Inslee was all about.

Is Inslee going to pass up Bernie and Biden now? I doubt it. But he’s got some life for his campaign. And contrast our current economy, where people are doing better than they have for two decades, with what Jay Inslee brings to the table — homelessness, heroin, and trash. That’s becoming the national image of Washington, Inslee’s home state. That’s what we’re now known for.

I’m thrilled now because I want Jay Inslee to stay in the race awhile. His campaign has some life, now that AOC thinks Inslee is AOK.

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Dori: Jay Inslee now has a shot at more than 1 percent, thanks to AOC