Frequently Asked Questions: Wenda Sheard for Ohio House District 94
Candidate: Wenda Sheard (Democrat) Office: Ohio House of Representatives, District 94 (Meigs and Washington counties, plus the outskirts of Athens County) Election: November 3, 2026 Information current as of: October 3, 2026
Getting to Know Her
1. Who is Wenda Sheard and why is she running? Sheard is a Democrat running for the Ohio House in the November 3, 2026 election. Sheard believes the real divide in politics isn’t left versus right; it’s billionaires and their large corporations against the rest of us.. She’s running to make government work for regular people, not donors or parties. Her three main messages are lowering costs, protecting drinking water from injection wells, and fully funding public schools.
2. What’s her background, and how will it help her as a legislator? Sheard graduated from Shaker Heights High School, and earned her law degree from Cleveland State University. She moved to Athens in 1979. She worked in Ohio courts for 22 years under Republican and Democratic judges, including serving as the Hocking County Domestic Relations Magistrate for three years. She’s also a mediator trained by the Ohio Supreme Court. She holds a PhD in political science with a focus on education policy, and has taught at education levels from kindergarten through graduate school. She has also served on local groups like the Athens County Bar Association (as president), the League of Women Voters (as vice-president), and Athens-Hocking-Vinton Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board (board member). She and her husband, a retired science teacher, raised three children.
3. She’s a Democrat. Is she just going to vote the party line? No. She’s running as a Democrat and believes in the party’s progress over the past century, but she knows neither party is perfect. Her motto is “people over party.” She promises to listen to people in the district.. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all support her. In an effort to improve the Ohio Democratic Party, she won a seat on the Ohio Democratic Party Central Committee in May 2026.
4. Republicans run the legislature. How would she get anything done? As a trained mediator, she knows it’s possible to sit down with another person and find common ground.. Some compromise, after recognition of shared values and mutual interests, is most certainly necessary for policymaking. Governance cannot happen without policymakers engaged in honest and open discussions to learn what compromises might be mutually agreeable. Sheard has been working with both Republican and Democratic officials opposed to injection wells because they all recognize the threat that injection wells pose to their safe drinking water.
5. Who has endorsed her? Sheard’s endorsements include the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Ohio Education Association’s Fund for Children and Public Education, the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (AFSCME Local 11), the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE/AFSCME Local 4), AFSCME Power in Action, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, The Matriots, Greater Than PAC, United She Stands, and Save Ohio Parks.
Water and the Environment
6. I keep hearing about injection wells. What does Wenda Sheard want to do?
Injection wells are deep holes where companies pump in liquid waste. Class II injection wells accept toxic, radioactive fracking waste left over from horizontal oil and gas drilling, known as fracking. That waste is pumped underground under pressure. Unfortunately, the waste sometimes moves underground and ruins other wells. In Washington County, injection well waste has ruined so many conventional oil and wells that one gas company has had to shut down, leaving homeowners and businesses without fuel for their heating systems. Many experts and others believe that it’s only a matter of time before the toxic, radioactive waste ruins drinking water sources. Much of the waste in District 94 comes from other states.
Because the injection wells have created an emergency in Washington County, Sheard’s first priority will be pushing for a state law requiring the state to shut down any injection well when there’s proof that the waste has moved outside its approved zone, ruined other wells, or reached the surface. Additionally, Sheard believes that well owners should pay for damage to water supplies, pay for damage to conventional oil and gas wells, and pay for any other damages the injection wells might cause.
7. Why does she think we need a moratorium on injection wells, and who else wants one? A moratorium is a temporary stop. The state needs time to study the dangers posed by injection wells. The dangers have been growing. The City of Marietta, five water boards in Washington County, two township trustee boards, and one village council have all voted for a moratorium on injection wells. The City of Marietta asked for a three-year moratorium. Sheard supports that request.
8. Can’t our local governments just block injection wells themselves? Not under current law. The state’s natural resources agency (ODNR) controls the rules for oil and gas disposal, so cities and counties can’t use local zoning to stop it. That’s why the fix has to come from a new state law, and that’s part of why Sheard is running for state representative.
9. How does she balance jobs and the environment? And what about the plastics plant? Local people should decide what kinds of development come to their area. Development should not harm a community in the long run. On the proposed plastics plant in Athens County, Sheard knows there are many concerns. Sheard is grateful that citizens are expressing their concerns, and public officials are listening to citizen input.
Prices and Taxes
10. Prices keep going up. What would Wenda Sheard do about it? Sheard would reverse recent tax breaks that favor the wealthy, push for stronger oversight of the state agency that oversees utilities (PUCO), make property taxes fairer, and explore ideas for making health care cheaper. Sheard also supports living wages and the rights of unions to bargain for the terms and conditions of employment.
11. What’s wrong with Ohio’s new flat income tax, and will my taxes go up? The flat income tax is one tax rate for everyone. It instantly gave millionaires a big tax break and gave nothing to anyone earning under $26,000. Sheard wants to lower the tax burden on low and middle income families and make billionaires and large corporations pay their fair share.
12. My property taxes, including school levy taxes, keep climbing. What would she do? The school tax burden has shifted from businesses onto families and farmers, and families are voting on levies they can barely afford. Ohio has more tax levies on the ballot than any other state. Sheard will work with county auditors for ideas to make property taxes fairer while still supporting schools and roads. Fully funding public schools at the state level will reduce how much public schools rely on local tax levies. Sheard supports fair property taxes.
13. Can she do anything about my electric bill? Sheard will work for stronger oversight of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and work to repeal laws that let utilities profit more than is reasonable. Sheard knows that Ohioans are still paying on their electric bills for the FirstEnergy bribery scandal tied to the 2019 House Bill 6 bailout. Ohioans are also paying more on their electric bills due to data centers consuming so much electricity in Ohio that wholesale costs of electricity have risen substantially in recent years. Data centers should pay for whatever increases their energy consumption might cause in our electric bills.
14. Where does she stand on wages and unions? Sheard supports living wages and unions. She opposes the legislature’s actions to weaken unions, such as the provisions in Senate Bill 1 that limited the collective bargaining rights of Ohio’s public university faculty. Unions help ensure that hard-working Ohioans earn a living wage, which allows them to pay for groceries, housing, health care, and other needs for themselves and their children.
15. How would she help small towns pay for broadband, water, sewer, and roads? Sheard wants our Ohio House District 94 to get a fair share of state and federal money for roads, bridges, water, sewer, and broadband. She will back additional funding ideas local governments and residents suggest. She will also fight to keep the Ohio Local Government Fund, which helps pay for local services like police, unless local governments propose a fairer way to share the money.
Schools
16. What would Wenda Sheard do about school funding? Sheard wants Ohio’s school funding to be “thorough and efficient,” as the Ohio Constitution requires, so every child gets the same opportunities no matter where they live. She supports the bipartisan Cupp-Patterson plan. The plan called for an extra $3 billion for schools this budget period, but the legislature funded less than ten cents on the dollar of that amount.
17. Why does she want to end the expanded EdChoice voucher program? What about parents who use it? Vouchers are state monies that help pay private school tuition. Sheard would end the expanded EdChoice program, which cost $492 million in 2025, and instead put that money into public schools. Private schools get public money with little accountability and don’t have to accept every child. Because the voucher amounts don’t cover all the tuition in most big city private schools, only families with enough income to cover the difference are able to use the vouchers. That’s why Sheard calls the vouchers “coupons for the rich.”
18. What about universities, career centers, and Senate Bill 1? Sheard would work to fully fund career centers and universities. She wants to repeal Senate Bill 1, the 2025 law that limited academic freedom and union bargaining at universities. Universities should make their own curriculum decisions, and teachers and local school boards should decide what is taught in K-12 schools.
Health Care
19. How would Wenda Sheard make health care more affordable and easier to get here? Sheard would work to increase transparency and accountability in health care. The cuts to Medicaid and SNAP have gone too far. Sheard will work to end the decreases expected to result in many Ohioans losing benefits in 2027. Sheard is aware that if area families don’t have health insurance, some rural hospitals might close. Sheard understands the need for easier access to specialists, and for more doctors for rural clinics.
20. Does she support universal health care? Sheard wants Ohio to examine whether a universal system like those in other developed countries could work in Ohio. She also wants Ohio to consider insurance laws passed in other states, including Massachusetts, Hawaii, New York, and Minnesota, that have resulted in large percentages of residents having insurance.
21. Where does she stand on reproductive rights? Sheard supports reproductive rights, and, at the same time, wants to make abortion as rare as possible in Ohio. Sheard believes it’s possible to greatly reduce the number of abortions in Ohio by reducing the reasons someone might seek an abortion. Sheard’s goal is to make sure no one seeks an abortion due to lack of birth control, medical care, childcare, education, or income. She worked to collect signatures and lobby for the 2023 Ohio constitutional amendment protecting them, organized a community event after the Dobbs decision, and helped put free Plan B kits near the Ohio University campus.
Fair and Open Government
22. What does Wenda Sheard think about data centers and secret deals with local officials? Sheard supports House Bill 695, which would ban secrecy agreements (called NDAs) for local officials on data center projects. The bill is needed, given how many communities have been blindsided by secret deals. Sheard wants to require public hearings before large data centers are built or get tax breaks. She wants to make sure that all the data center bills introduced by Democrats in February 2026, including House Bill 695, as well as House Bill 983, which was introduced by Republicans in July, get public hearings.
23. What is gerrymandering, and why does she care? Gerrymandering means drawing voting district lines to help one party win. It’s Ohio’s biggest governmental challenge. Sheard wants to amend the Ohio Constitution so citizens, not politicians, draw the maps, using a system like Michigan’s. In September 2023, Athens County was split in a way that weakened Democratic voting power. Both parties have done gerrymandering over time. Increased computing power has made gerrymandering even more effective and dangerous that it’s been in the past. Sheard wants candidates of every party to promise never to do it again.
24. What are her views on voting rules and money in politics? Sheard supports automatic voter registration, same-day registration, and reasonable ID requirements, and she wants to keep elections secure. She also supports ranked choice voting and nonpartisan elections for judges. She’d require that the source of political action committee (PAC) money be made public, so voters know who’s behind the ads they see.
25. What does she think about legislators who want to chip away at constitutional amendments passed by voters? Whenever voters pass a constitutional amendment, such as the 2023 cannabis amendment or the 2023 reproductive rights amendment, Sheard will remind legislators as necessary that any attempt to violate the will of the people by chipping away at a constitutional amendment will result in taxpayer dollars spent in court actions that the state is bound to lose. That’s because constitutional amendments always take priority over acts of the legislature.
26. How do I register and vote? The deadline to register for the November 3 election is Monday, October 5, 2026. You can register online or in person at your county board of elections. Early voting runs October 6 through November 1 at your county’s early voting location, and Election Day polls are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m November 3. You’ll need a photo ID. To check your registration or find details, visit the Ohio Secretary of State’s website (ohiosos.gov) or call your county board of elections.
26. How can I reach Wenda Sheard, and will she hold town halls? Her cell phone number is 740-818-1845. (She doesn’t answer numbers she doesn’t know, so text her first and she’ll call back.) Her campaign email is FriendsofWendaSheard@gmail.com. If elected, Sheard will hold town halls and spend most of the legislature’s recess time in the district, listening to voters in all three counties.