Washington Senate Democrats elected first-term Sen. Sharon Shewmake to chair the influential Environment, Energy, & Technology Committee, replacing Sen. Joe Nguyễn, who was recently named director of the Department of Commerce.
Shewmake, D-Bellingham, tells us she’s looking forward to ensuring the success of the ambitious climate policies adopted by the Legislature in recent years, including the Climate Commitment Act, which survived a repeal campaign via ballot initiative last year. “Thanks to previous work and the voters, we are in the era of climate governance. That means transmission, siting, figuring out how we ensure this transition works for the working people of Washington State.”
The elevation of Shewmake has interesting elements. Unlike Nguyễn and his predecessor, Reuven Carlyle, she doesn’t represent a safe Seattle district full of left-leaning environmentalists. The 42nd District holds a chunk of increasingly progressive Bellingham but also spans rural Whatcom County, which includes two of the state’s major oil refineries and a great many people who work in the fossil fuel industry. Until just a few years ago, it was Republican territory.
Shewmake, a Western Washington University economics professor, won a House seat by a handful of votes in 2018 and held it by a similarly slim margin in 2020. Following the untimely death of GOP Sen. Doug Ericksen, Shewmake won the Senate seat in 2022—again by a razor-thin margin—by besting his appointed successor in one of the more interesting races of that year.
For fans of irony, Ericksen held the chair of the same committee when Republicans controlled the Senate, where he successfully blocked much of Gov. Jay Inslee’s climate agenda until Democrats won back the chamber in 2017.
The former vice-chair of the committee, Sen. Liz Lovelett, D-Anacortes, who represents the neighboring 40th District, was recently named deputy majority leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus. The vice-chair slot for the upcoming session was earmarked for the new senator from the 48th District, which turns out to be Rep. Vandana Slatter, D-Bellevue.
Shewmake had been slated to lead the Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee for the 2025 session. That role now falls to incoming Sen. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles, who held the analogous chair in the House.
Nguyễn also held a seat on the powerful budget-writing Senate Ways & Means Committee. That slot goes to incoming Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane. (Paul Queary)
Democrats aim to end flavored tobacco and nicotine sales
In the upcoming session, Washington lawmakers will weigh whether to end the sale of flavored tobacco and nicotine products beginning in 2026.
The bills, sponsored by Democrats Rep. Kristine Reeves in the House and Sen. T’wina Nobles in the Senate, would end the sale and marketing of flavored tobacco and nicotine products to Washington residents. The bill stops short of a ban on the possession of flavored tobacco and nicotine products, which are heavily marketed to youth and racial and ethnic minorities, and excludes cannabis from the regulation.
Big Tobacco markets its flavored products to youth and communities of color, making this a health equity issue. Sweet flavors such as cotton candy, gummy bears, and pink lemonade, are particularly desirable to youth tobacco users. About 88% of underage tobacco and nicotine users use flavored products, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nicotine pouches are becoming more popular among youth users, and, similar to Juul vapes from 2017 onward, are marketed to teens and young adults.
Menthol cigarettes, which have a cooling sensation that limits the harshness of the smoke inhalation, have been aggressively marketed to the Black community for generations. Menthols are also harder to quit than non-flavored tobacco, according to the CDC. Black, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, LGBTQ+ people, and people with mental illness are more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than other tobacco products.
Flavors Hook Kids Washington is the campaign behind the end-of-sale policy that’s backed by a broad coalition of racial justice, health care, education, and youth stakeholders, including the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and the Washington chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The bill comes six years after the U.S. Surgeon General deemed youth vaping and tobacco use an epidemic. Though the COVID-19 pandemic toppled youth vaping off the public health priorities list from 2020-22, renewed concerns around youth uptake of flavored nicotine vapes and pouches have brought the issue back to the forefront. If the lawmakers kill the sale of flavored tobacco and nicotine products, Washington would join six other states, including Massachusetts and California, and hundreds of local municipalities with similar laws on the books.
The 2025 bills aren’t the first time lawmakers have taken a swing at regulating flavored tobacco and vape products. In 2019, Washington raised the minimum age of purchase for a tobacco or nicotine product from 18 to 21, joining many other states that passed similar laws. The same year, Gov. Jay Inslee issued an emergency ban on flavored vapes, including cannabis products, after an outbreak of lung injuries linked to the use of vitamin E acetate in vapes. The ban was lifted in Feb. 2020 after the problem was fixed, but Inslee requested a bill to enshrine it in law. Senate Bill 6254, sponsored by then-Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, passed the Senate that year but died without a vote in the House. (Sara Kassabian)
Slatter named to replace Kuderer in Senate, setting up a D-on-D fight
The King County Council named Democratic Rep. Vandana Slatter, D-Bellevue, to replace Insurance Commissioner-elect Patty Kuderer in the Senate, which sets up a Democrat-on-Democrat showdown for the 48th District seat later this year.
Slatter’s seatmate, Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, also bid for the Senate appointment. She quickly announced a plan to challenge Slatter in the special election for the final year of Kuderer’s term. The winner will face another election in 2026.
Walen, who owns auto dealerships with her husband, is one of the dwindling number of business-friendly moderates in the increasingly progressive House Democratic Caucus. She’s likely to draw strong support from the business lobby and others alarmed by the Legislature’s recent lurch to the left, especially on tax issues. Slatter, a pharmacist by training who worked as a scientist for biotech companies, is more aligned with the larger progressive wing of the caucus.
The 48th District, which includes most of the eastern shore of Lake Washington, is home to some of the fanciest real estate and richest people in Washington, the targets of outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee’s wealth tax and other plans to tax the wealthy. Although it’s been solidly in the Democrats’ column in recent years, it’s not clear how enthusiastic its affluent voters are about all that talk of taxes.
Walen was unopposed for reelection last year. Slatter won with more than 70% of the vote. (Paul Queary)
These stories also appeared in The Washington Observer.
