The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced the endorsement of Gov. Jay Inslee for reelection.

As Governor, Jay Inslee has been a champion for the LGBTQ community. Inslee and the legislature created Washington’s first LGBTQ Commission appointing members of the community from across the state to advocate for equality and inclusion for LGBTQ people. He signed legislation banning so called “conversion therapy’ and “panic defense.” He worked to establish LGBTQ inclusive sex education in Washington schools and appointed Washington’s first LGBTQ state Supreme Court justice. When then-Governor Mike Pence attacked LGBTQ people and our rights, Gov. Inslee became one of the first to issue a boycott of state travel to Indiana.

“Gov. Jay Inslee has used every lever of his power to fight for equality for LGBTQ people,” said Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “Under his leadership, Washington has become a true model for what a pro-equality government can achieve. From giving LGBTQ people a voice in government, to legislation banning anti-LGBTQ policies, Inslee has one of the strongest pro-equality records of any governor in America. I’m proud to announce our endorsement of Governor Inslee and look forward to continuing to work with him to achieve full equality for LGBTQ people nationwide.”

“I am honored to have the support of the Human Rights Campaign,” said Governor Inslee. “I am proud we have made Washington the best state for LGBTQ rights and remain committed to ensuring equality for all.”   

In the 2018 midterms, HRC helped register more than 32,000 voters and recruited more than 4,200 volunteers, who worked over 8,500 shifts and clocked more than 30,000 volunteer hours. In the critical final four days of the campaign, HRC staff and volunteers in get-out-the-vote efforts alone knocked on more than 80,000 doors, and held 36,400 conversations with voters at their doors and by phone on behalf of our endorsed candidates. HRC's unprecedented grassroots mobilization worked to recruit volunteers, mobilize constituents, register voters and grow the organization's grassroots army in an all-out effort to pull the emergency brake on the hateful anti-LGBTQ agenda of the Trump-Pence administration and elect a Congress that would hold them accountable. In 2020, our engagement and mobilization efforts will only deepen.  HRC will have at least 45 full-time staff in seven priority states and an additional 20 staff focused on a second tier of states and districts.