Sharon Shewmake

Sharon Shewmake is an American politician of the Democratic Party, and a professor of Economics and Energy Policy at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.[1]

She represents the 42nd district in the Washington House of Representatives. In the November 2018 general election she defeated four-term incumbent Vincent Buys for State Representative (Pos. 2) by 981 votes.[2] She took office in January 2019. In 2020 she beat Republican Jennifer Sefzik by 3,134 votes.[3]

Shewmake serves on three committees in the State House. She serves as the Vice Chair of the Rural Development, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Committee and sits on the Energy and Environment Committee and the Transportation Committee.[4]

Shewmake holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis, and Bachelor's degrees in both Economics and in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University.[5]

Her political work is on bringing down the cost of childcare [6] and removing barriers to access,[7] improving the economics of energy [8] and energy transparency [9] as well as service to the agriculture industry.[10]

Her academic work focuses on the economics of housing and transportation, the impacts of environmental policies, and microeconomics.[11] Her publications have examined, among other subjects, the impacts of policies meant to reduce air pollution and congestion as well as how consumers respond to environmental labels, including labels for agricultural products.[12]