Washington insurance commissioner Kreidler won’t seek re-election

Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, having rejected calls to resign last year over racist remarks and his leadership style, announced Monday he will not seek re-election.

Kreidler, who sent an email to agency staff confirming he would not seek re-election, said in his statement, “Serving alongside you as Insurance Commissioner for Washington state has been, and continues to be, the greatest honor of my life. I’ve always said it was the best job I’ve ever had, and I still feel that way today."

Kreidler is Washington’s eighth insurance commissioner. A former member of Congress, he was first elected as insurance commissioner in 2000. He was re-elected to a sixth term in 2020.

In June last year, Kreidler refused to resign his post despite losing Gov. Jay Inslee's support after multiple scandals. Kreidler fired a top aide who had complained that the longtime commissioner bullied him, used crass language and was "antagonizing staff."

Inslee had said at that time Kreidler was "unable to fulfill his leadership responsibility," the Seattle Times reported. Kreidler, a Democrat who was elected to his position, was under fire from both parties, but losing fellow Democrat Inslee's support was significant.

“I cannot comment on the details of an individual personnel matter but the conclusion that an important and valued employee’s departure was because he filed a complaint against me is not true and does not reflect the full context of the story," Kreidler had said in a statement in response to the allegations last year.

A half-dozen potential and former employees had disclosed instances when Kreidler was demeaning or rude, overly focused on race and used derogatory terms for transgender people and people of Mexican, Chinese, Italian or Spanish descent, as well as asking some employees of color for unusual favors, the Seattle Times reported. The instances took place from 2017 to 2022.

While none of the former employees had filed a formal complaint against Kreidler, Jon Noski, the agency's legislative affairs director, filed a complaint in February. Noski alleged that Kreidler bullied him on Feb. 1, 2022 when the commissioner berated Noski after his testimony in a legislative committee on a bill involving credit scoring.

Kreidler is the second state insurance commissioner in the past three months to make the decision to step down and not seek re-election. Kreidler’s decision follows the announcement of Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon in March that he would not seek re-election, citing a desire to step away and not seek a fifth term. Louisiana is in the midst of an insurance crisis brought on by costly storm and hurricane events.

Kriedler, in his statement to staff Monday, said, "I intend to work just as hard for the rest of my term as I have for the last 22 years and remain as committed as ever to our mission. We have a lot of work left to do together and important initiatives already underway, from increasing premium transparency for consumers to continuing to push for a robust, dependable insurance market.

“I know that the pandemic and last few years have been hard on many of you personally and I’m grateful for your resiliency and dedication to our work. Indeed, it has been hard on all of us. Now, I wish you the very best and look forward to continuing to work alongside all of you.”