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Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday that he has decided to drop out of the 2020 presidential race. Inslee made the announcement on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, saying it has become apparent that he will not win the election.
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"It's clear that I'm not going to be carrying the ball. I'm not going to be the president, so I'm withdrawing from the race," Inslee said.
The 68-year-old Inslee, who has been Washington's governor since 2013 and previously represented the state's 4th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, qualified for the first two rounds of the Democratic primary debates.
"The tremendous grassroots outpouring of 130,000 individual donors, from every state in the nation, is a testament to the movement that we've built together," Inslee wrote on Twitter. "We hit this high bar set by the DNC. Together, we changed and shaped the entire national dialogue around climate change."
His campaign focused primarily on the issue of climate change, last month unveiling a $1.2 trillion plan to allocate clean energy spending to the most vulnerable communities.
Inslee declined to endorse a specific candidate Wednesday night, saying he would support the Democratic Party in the upcoming election.
On Thursday, Inslee plans to release a more extensive statement detailing his future political plans, including whether he will seek re-election as governor or accept an offer from the eventual Democratic nominee to serve as their running mate.
