Gov. Inslee could be in ‘early stages of another presidential run,’ political watchdog theorizes

Washington Governor Jay Inslee is giving political watchdogs reason to believe he is considering a bid for the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

In November, the governor traveled to Chicago, where he reportedly had a number of appointments and fundraising efforts that are consistent with the early stages of a presidential campaign, The Washington Observer’s Paul Queary told KIRO Newsradio’s Dori Monson Show.

One of those appointments, per the governor’s calendar, was with an architect of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential victory, David Axelrod.

“He’s kind of an Inslee fan,” Queary said about Axelrod. “He said a lot of nice things about Inslee when he was running for president a couple of years ago.”

Queary referenced an interview that Inslee gave to Axelrod’s podcast, “CNN’s The Axe Files,” and a subsequent analysis of Inslee’s 2020 presidential campaign in which Axelrod is quoted as saying, “Jay Inslee didn’t find his lane, but he impressed me with his smart, earnest advocacy around climate change. He leaves with his dignity intact and reputation enhanced, which isn’t always true in presidential races.”

While that one calendar appointment in and of itself is far from definitive evidence that Inslee is ready to run for president, other indications point in that direction, Queary claims.

Inslee also met with Mark Devaney, chief technology officer of Lion Cave Capital. Devaney is a known Democratic party donor, with contributions listed under the Federal Elections Commission to political action committees for U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood.

“He met with one of the bigger political donors on the Democratic side in that part of the country,” Queary added. “When I look at this trip, I ask, why would he do that? Why would he go out of his way to go to Chicago, to do all these things that have [little] to do with being governor in Washington? It looks like the early stages of another presidential run.”

Queary also noted that the expenses related to these appointments were charged to Inslee’s 2024 reelection campaign fund, money which could be portioned for a presidential campaign. He referenced similar concurrent campaigns that were run at the county executive level in Washington state.

“Dow Constantine was basically running a shadow campaign for governor for a couple of years out of his reelection campaign for county executive,” Queary added. “You can just see that in the spending patterns. You’re buying polling. You’re paying certain kinds of consultants two, three, or four years before you’re actually running for election. You don’t do that unless you’re thinking about running for something else.”

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.