Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will get his turn in the national cable-news spotlight this week, taking voter questions Wednesday during a CNN Town Hall.
It’s part of a weeklong presidential campaign tour that also will take the governor to the early 2020 caucus and primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Inslee is scheduled to leave the state Tuesday morning, returning the following Tuesday, according to the governor’s office.
Inslee’s CNN town hall, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, will be broadcast Wednesday from Washington, D.C., starting at 7 p.m. Pacific.
CNN has been hosting a string of town halls with all the Democratic candidates vying to take on President Donald Trump. Inslee’s turn is sandwiched between U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on Tuesday and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro on Thursday.
The governor’s politics-focused trip includes one official event: Inslee is scheduled to speak at Columbia University’s Global Energy Summit in New York on Wednesday. He’ll remain in the city Thursday, appearing on “CBS This Morning” and MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber.”
On Friday, Inslee will travel to Hamburg, Iowa, where he’ll tour damage from recent flooding and visit a flood assistance center to meet with volunteers. Later that day he’ll discuss his campaign’s singular theme of fighting climate change at a meet-and-greet with Democrats and community members in Council Bluffs.
On Sunday, Inslee will head to New Hampshire for a town hall with progressive groups and recording of a live episode of “Pod Save America,” the popular politics podcast hosted by former aides to President Obama.
Inslee on Monday will make his first visit as a candidate to South Carolina, touring solar facilities at Furman University in Greenville, participating in a town hall at a Baptist church and meeting with the Greenville County Democratic Party.
While Inslee’s presidential campaign covers the cost of his political travel, taxpayers foot the bill for the State Patrol’s Executive Protection Unit. The patrol, required by law to protect the governor and his family, recently expanded its security unit and estimates it will cost an additional $4 million if Inslee remains in the race into next year.
Inslee has declined calls for his campaign to reimburse the state for those security costs.