This is an excerpt from The Stakes 2020, BuzzFeed News' newsletter about what really matters in the 2020 campaign. You can sign up here.



Washington Gov. Jay Inslee dropped out last month after a campaign focused almost totally on climate change, and one that basically succeeded in forcing the issue to the front and center. The former presidential candidate told me he sees a “distinct difference” between the Democrats’ climate plans, and was “particularly pleased to see Senator Warren’s” hard line on binding measures to cut carbon emissions — a stance she took when she basically adopted Inslee's own plan. One observation: “We all ought to assess who actually is willing to invest the political capital required to get this job done.”

I asked him about the issue and his unexpected emergence as a sex symbol — but he mostly just wanted to give me, and you, a tour of his state’s energy infrastructure. It looked pretty good!

