The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 plus 5 letter word EVERGREEN STATE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
E
V
E
R
G
R
E
E
N
S
T
A
T
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Washington" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case washington = evergreen state.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.