Ex-Dem Governor Rips Washington State Leaders Over Out-of-Control Economic Policies

A former Democratic Washington state governor said Democrats steering the state are spending too much.

Christine Gregoire, the state’s governor from 2005 to 2013 and now the CEO of Challenge Seattle, a coalition of business leaders, said what legislators are doing is harming the state, according to KXLY-TV.

The state’s spending has more than doubled in the 13 years since she’s left office, Gregoire said.

“I left office with a budget of $33 billion, and the budget today is $80 billion. I think that’s a little bit too much of a growth,” she said at the Association of Washington Business 2026 Summit.

“And yet how we find ourselves at the end of every legislative session now is in the hole and projected to be in the hole,” Gregoire said.

The former governor said spending does not produce outcomes that state residents can see.

“All too often, what we’re finding is,