Then-gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee talks with then-Mayor Joan McGilton at Burien City Hall in 2011 before a walking tour through the city. Photo by Scott Schaefer.

On Friday, Mar. 1, 2019, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he has thrown his hat into the ring to run for President in 2020.

Inslee has local roots to our area, having attended Shorewood Elementary School before going to nearby Cascade Middle School.

Inslee grew up on SW 116th Street in what used to be White Center, but is now part of Burien. He is a fifth-generation native Washingtonian, and he even painted houses in the Burien area with his Father, Frank Inslee, a teacher and coach at Seattle’s Franklin High School.

He is now running for the highest office in the land, with fighting climate change as his main theme:

At a local fundraiser in 2016, Inslee shared a story about a (mostly true) experience he had while playing for the football team at Cascade:

“I lived in White Center for most of my childhood, and I went to Cascade Junior High School, and I’ll never forget the day we were playing football against Seahurst Junior High School just up the hill, and it was a rainy day like this, late October, and I didn’t have good circulation in my hands and I came over to the sidelines, I said ‘coach coach I can’t feel my hands…I can’t throw the ball, I can’t even hold onto the ball,’ and the coach looked at me and said ‘You know Inslee you’re pathetic – I put you in as quarterback, and you come in here whining about cold hands. You’re never going to amount to anything!’ I looked coach right in the eyes and I said, ‘I tell you what coach – you can say that right now – but there will be a day when I’ll return to Seahurst as governor of the state!’ Some of that story is true actually…”

Here’s a video from a live broadcast of Inslee’s announcement – he starts speaking at around the 14:00 mark:

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