Sharon Shewmake
2022 - Present
2027
2
Sharon Shewmake (Democratic Party) is a member of the Washington State Senate, representing District 42. She assumed office on December 9, 2022. Her current term ends on January 11, 2027.
Shewmake (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the Washington State Senate to represent District 42. She declared candidacy for the 2026 election.[source]
Biography
Sharon Shewmake lives in Bellingham, Washington. Shewmake earned a bachelor's degree in environmental science and policy from Duke University in 2002 and a Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis in 2010.[1][2] Her career experience includes working as a professor of environmental economics, urban economics and energy policy at Western Washington University in Bellingham, as well as a children’s book author.[3]
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at:editor@ballotpedia.org.
2023-2024
Shewmake was assigned to the following committees:
- Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee
- Housing Committee
- Senate Transportation Committee
2021-2022
Shewmake was assigned to the following committees:
- Capital Budget Committee
- Environment & Energy Committee
- Rural Development, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Committee, Vice chair
2019-2020
Shewmake was assigned to the following committees:
- Environment & Energy Committee
- House Transportation Committee
- Rural Development, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Committee, Vice Chair
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2026
See also: Washington State Senate elections, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for Washington State Senate District 42
Incumbent Sharon Shewmake is running in the general election for Washington State Senate District 42 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| Sharon Shewmake (D) | ||
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Endorsements
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2022
See also: Washington State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for Washington State Senate District 42
Sharon Shewmake defeated incumbent Simon Sefzik in the general election for Washington State Senate District 42 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sharon Shewmake (D) | 50.6 | 38,098 | |
| Simon Sefzik (R) | 49.3 | 37,193 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 75 | ||
| Total votes: 75,366 | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington State Senate District 42
Sharon Shewmake and incumbent Simon Sefzik defeated Ben Elenbaas in the primary for Washington State Senate District 42 on August 2, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sharon Shewmake (D) | 47.1 | 24,497 | |
| ✔ | Simon Sefzik (R) | 33.1 | 17,248 | |
| Ben Elenbaas (R) | 19.7 | 10,277 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.0 | 21 | ||
| Total votes: 52,043 | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Russ Dzialo (Independent)
Endorsements
To view Shewmake's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Sharon Shewmake did not file to run for re-election.
2020
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2
Incumbent Sharon Shewmake defeated Jennifer Sefzik in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sharon Shewmake (D) | 51.7 | 47,702 | |
| Jennifer Sefzik (R) | 48.2 | 44,501 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 93 | ||
| Total votes: 92,296 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2
Jennifer Sefzik and incumbent Sharon Shewmake advanced from the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Jennifer Sefzik (R) | 50.4 | 31,599 | |
| ✔ | Sharon Shewmake (D) | 49.5 | 31,008 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 43 | ||
| Total votes: 62,650 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Shewmake's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
2018
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2018
General election
General election for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2
Sharon Shewmake defeated incumbent Vincent Buys in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sharon Shewmake (D) | 50.7 | 36,704 | |
| Vincent Buys (R) | 49.3 | 35,723 | ||
| Total votes: 72,427 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2
Sharon Shewmake and incumbent Vincent Buys advanced from the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2 on August 7, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sharon Shewmake (D) | 52.3 | 21,733 | |
| ✔ | Vincent Buys (R) | 47.7 | 19,837 | |
| Total votes: 41,570 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?
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You can ask Sharon Shewmake to fill out this survey by using the button below or emailing sharon@sharon4whatcom.com.
2022
Sharon Shewmake completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shewmake's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I’m the only economist in the Legislature. When I champion bills for Whatcom County they pass because I’m honest, I listen, and I work across party lines using evidence and data, not ideology.
I’ve brought funding back home to Whatcom for flood recovery, academy slots to train local police, mental health centers, rural broadband, solar energy, and record investments in affordable housing and addressing homelessness.
Our work is not done. People in every corner of Whatcom face rising prices, increased housing costs, a changing climate, and threats to women’s rights. I’ll prioritize getting our economy back on track so everyone has an opportunity for a good life: good jobs, affordable homes, quality health care at a reasonable price, making sure Whatcom County stays a great place to live and raise a family. We share so many goals: great schools; safe neighborhoods, parks, and trails; a healthy environment with productive farms and salmon runs —that’s why I’m running for State Senate.
Endorsed by Planned Parenthood, Bellingham/Whatcom Firefighters, Washington State Labor Council, Washington Conservation Voters, Washington Educational Association, Senator Patty Murray and more. I’d be honored by your vote.
- We need more affordable housing, especially in cities where people want to live and where jobs are.
- It's an elected leader's role to make sure they're listening to all their constituents.
- We need to build an economy that works for everyone.
I'm an economist with a lot of experience studying how people make decisions about energy use, transportation and housing so I find those areas fascinating and essential to ensuring we have an economy that works for everyone.
We have to do more on affordable housing, ensuring our schools stay open, protecting the environment, improving public safety, reducing gun violence, building better mental health systems, protecting our democracy and ensuring women can make their own decisions about healthcare.
Come take an economics class with me!
Realizing that winning an election is a community effort and wanting to use that office to do good for others, not oneself.
The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster. I was so excited to see a teacher go into space and horrified to learn when she didn't.
Babysitting and Honey Baked Ham Company! It was the only place that would hire a 15 year old and it was only during the holiday season, but I was so excited to earn $300 all on my own.
We Don't Talk About Bruno. Oh no, it's stuck in your head too now!
Affordable housing. It's the biggest part of peoples budgets and something state and local government can influence a lot.
Yes! Although I don't think there is just *one* type of legislator. We all bring a breadth of understanding and experience to the legislature and are better off the more different perspectives we all have. This is true not just for the legislature but for so many human endeavors!
I hear from so many spectacular people but it's the ones that faced adversity that stick with me. Recently I doorbelled a man who had been abused as a child and was homeless and addicted because his parents had told him he was worthless and he believed it. It was people telling him things like "it's nice to see you" that started to change his thinking. I've heard stories of people who were homeless because they couldn't afford a rent payment or were forced to live in their cars because of a flood, a relationship ending or a financial disaster. So many of us are closer to homelessness than we realize and we need to do a better job building a more resilient economy where people aren't punished for things they couldn't control.
Compromise is necessary for just about anything you do with another human. I have to credit my husband for teaching me more about compromise and learning have tough talks, lay out situations and look for win-win scenarios.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2020
Sharon Shewmake completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Shewmake's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I'm an economics professor at Western Washington University and the only economist in the legislature. I serve as Vice Chair of the Rural Development, Agriculture and Natural Resources committee in the Washington State House of Representatives where I have passed bills to modernize our agricultural system and used economics to find better solutions for agriculture, especially in Whatcom County. I also serve on the Transportation Committee and Energy and Environment Committee.
In the 2019/2020 session I passed bills to support our dairy farmers and modernize our pesticide application process, to make our electricity sector more transparent and cut pollution of potent greenhouse gases while also saving money, creating jobs and making our communities safer by fixing a problem with the way we regulate our natural gas infrastructure. Another big policy focus has been working to ensure more families have access to preschool and childcare. I passed the Rural Childcare Access Act which improved licensing for all of Washington but rural areas in particular and removed a burdensome work requirement for student parents to access subsidized childcare.
I'm practical and results driven, using data and evidence to make decisions. The 2021 session will especially need new tools and an economist eye as we contemplate how to rebuild. We need to make sure that our rural areas recover first, by investing in rural jobs including forest health, high-speed internet and infrastructure.
- Economic Recovery that starts in rural areas, supports working people with good jobs, and builds the foundation for a better future.
- For ever $1 we spend on early learning, we get $7-9 worth of benefits. It's good for the kids, the parents and it saves us taxpayer money by lowering K-12 special education costs and even the incarceration rate. It's the right thing to do and good economic policy.
- We have to work together on addressing environmental pollution. I've been working with BP and other energy intensive industries to figure out smarter, more flexible regulations that reduce pollution cost effectively. This is important because it's not just our pollution that matters, but when Washington State can show that we can tackle the toughest problems and people like it, then it becomes easier for other states to innovate. That means market driven solutions.
1. Economic recovery
2. Reducing poverty through effective measures like early education. Many people think that economist only care about money, but really we care about people. It's not gold or land that is our greatest resource, it's the talents and dreams of our people and when we don't allow people to reach those dreams because of high housing costs, unaffordable healthcare, schools that don't support every student, then we are wasting that most precious resource.
3. Ensuring that we give our children an earth worth fighting for.
4. Better data. You measure that you care about, but in many areas of government we simply don't share enough data and do enough evaluation of projects. We HAVE to hold ourselves accountable with high quality work and as an academic researcher I know that many other researchers are willing to do that work for free because they care about making a difference and answering tough questions. Let's leverage this. Because when you don't research the tough questions, then difficult conversations break down to ideology and the loudest voices (not necessarily the smartest or most informed voices) end up winning.
I've been blessed to have some of the best teachers so there isn't just one answer here. But from my kindergarten teacher to Madame Black my favorite French teacher, and her husband Mr. Black my favorite biology teacher and Mr. Harshman in high school there were some good options. I had a Russian and French teacher that I also loved in elementary school (I can still sing a song about a rooster in Russian). I also had wonderful teachers in college and graduate school, as well as Joni Hersch and Kip Viscusi who were incredible mentors for my first post-doc. There have been other informal teachers since finishing school, including Rep Debra Lekanoff in the 40th LD who entered the legislature the same time as me but had much more experience in government and was able to hit the ground running. I've learned so much from her and other people around me. It's been an absolute honor.
The Challenger exploding. I grew up in Florida so we could actually see it, and while I don't remember seeing it myself, I remember people talking about how we all saw it. Christa McAuliffe was a teacher and I was in kindergarten, my first year of "real" school. We were all so excited for her to go up, and of course all our teachers were distraught. They hid it from us, but I remember a teacher in 2nd grade on an anniversary discussing it and crying to our class.
Other than babysitting, it was working at the HoneyBaked Ham Company helping with the seasonal rush. I was so excited to have a job and they were one of the few places that would hire a 14 year old. I'm a hard worker, so they'd hire me for every holiday-Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and I always felt so rich when I'd work a bunch of hours and have saved maybe $300 over the season. Big money for a 14 year old!
Dreams by Fleetwood Mac
It's helpful but sometimes too much can make you partisan and detached from what actual voters want. I think economics expertise is really helpful because we are not especially partisan people and will support ideas from both sides of the aisle if the numbers work out.
Yes! You can't pass a bill without 50% approval, but in reality it takes much more than that because bills need to be able to make it through committees as well. This job is working with other people, some who may not agree with you, so building relationships is crucial. Throwing insults will mean you get nothing done.
An independent commission is a good first step, but it's still not going to be immune to political manipulation. Frankly no system is immune, but we should strive to follow principles of geometry such as creating compact districts (the mathematical definition of compact-see https://mggg.org/ for more), that minimizes artificial divisions of communities. My city, Bellingham, is the largest city in the region but is divided into two legislative districts and the boundary is arbitrary. It hurts the community when this happens and it confuses voters.
All three were areas where I have research experience in!
I wouldn't run for U.S. Congress even if you paid me a million dollars. There are some things I want to see happen in Olympia, but I don't see myself doing this forever. I might want to run for City Council or other local races to help the area I live in more specifically. I always want to be a resources for other people running for office! We don't do this alone, it takes a community!
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
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Scorecards
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2024
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show]. |
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In 2024, the Washington State Legislature was in session from January 8 to March 7.
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2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the Washington State Legislature was in session from January 9 to April 23.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the Washington State Legislature was in session from January 10 to March 10.
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2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the Washington State Legislature was in session from January 11 to April 25.
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2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the Washington State Legislature was in session from January 13 to March 12.
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2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the Washington State Legislature was in session from January 14 through April 28.
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2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the Washington State Legislature, second session, was in session from January 8 through March 8.
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See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate Washington State Senate District 42 |
Officeholder Washington State Senate District 42 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 4, 2022
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Sharon Shewmake," accessed January 28, 2023
- ↑ Washington State Democrats, "Biography," accessed January 28, 2023
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Simon Sefzik (R) |
Washington State Senate District 42 2022-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by Vincent Buys (R) |
Washington House of Representatives District 42-Position 2 2019-2022 |
Succeeded by Joe Timmons (D) |
