Long-serving Tri-Cities ‘old-style Republican’ lawmaker with an independent streak dies

Shirley Hankins, who represented the Tri-Cities in the Washington state Legislature for 24 years as a moderate Republican with an independent streak, died Monday.

She was 93.

The Richland Republican was elected to the District 8 House seat in 1980 and served there until she was appointed to fill the state Senate seat of Sen. Max Benitz, who died just two months before the general election.

She lost the Senate seat after a brief and heated campaign, but returned to Olympia in 1995 to represent the 8th District in the House for 14 more years.

In her initial years in the House, Hankins was a pro-Hanford nuclear site vote at a time when the reservation’s defense and waste operations were under fire. She served as ranking Republican on the House Energy and Utilities Committee.

As she campaigned to return to the Legislature in 1994, the Tri-City Herald described her as an “old-style Republican — a moderate, willing to work with both sides of the aisle. She didn’t make waves in the Legislature — sponsoring and passing just 11 bills in her decade in the Capitol.”

“But Hankins is a veteran of the lengthy Hanford battles of the early ‘80s, and she says the advocacy she can offer on water and power issues counts for more than credit on a bill,” according to the Herald.

She was pro-business and opposed regulation and tax increases.

Tri-Cities transportation improved

The Herald editorial board said as she neared retirement from the Legislature that she carried influence in Olympia, and while some voters would have preferred ideological purity, “influence paves more roads.”

“She has fought hard for good roads in the Tri-Cities — and won. She has been a champion for education. And she’s known for stepping up when her constituents need help,” it said.

That included securing $200,000 to help build the Benton City Food Bank.

When she announced her retirement from state politics in 2008, Jerome Delvin, then a state senator and now a Benton County commissioner, credited her with helping build the Tri-Cities transportation network into a system that other parts of the state envied..

“We worked well together,” Delvin said this week.

Hankins was instrumental in securing money for key highway projects, including the Edison Street interchange and the widening of Highway 240 between Kennewick and Richland.

Hankins said at the news conference announcing her retirement that securing state money for the Bioproducts, Sciences and Engineering Laboratory, or BSEL, at Washington State Univerisity Tri-Cities was among her major accomplishments in the Legislature.

One of the Tri-Cities area’s biggest issues is an over reliance on help from the federal government, she said.

But the Tri-Cities, adjacent to the Hanford nuclear site and home to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is diversifying and “is not a federal stronghold anymore,” she said.

‘Work across the aisle’

The state Senate position she briefly held now is filled by Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick.

He served as a page for Hankins when he was 15, and she continued to call him with advice until her health declined in late 2024.

She would remind him not to forget the impact that legislation has on people, Boehnke said.

“Build relationships and always fight for the 8th District” was advice from her he took to heart, he said.

Hankins said at the announcement of her retirement in 2008 that politics had changed since she won her first election.

Back then, legislators from both parties would get together for barbecues or baseball games.

“We’d have a great time together,” she said. “We’d get to know each other. We don’t do that anymore.”

She said many legislators are too focused on partisan politics and not enough on solving problems.

“Work across the aisle,” was her advice to Boehnke.

She retired under the cloud of an ethics investigation over her activities involving a business owned by family members, but maintained her actions were in the best interest of the Tri-Cities. The Legislative Ethics Board imposed a $4,175 penalty.

Hankins, born in Colby, Kansas, worked at Hanford as a dosimetry specialist and retired from Westinghouse Hanford Co. as a policy analyst.

She began her political career at the precinct level in 1964 and became interested in running for office after working on Dan Evans’ gubernatorial campaign.

After losing the Senate race and before returning to the House, she was active in the effort to create the Tri-Cities Cancer Center in Kennewick.

She also was active in the Kennewick Chamber of Commerce, Riverside Rotary Club, Board of Columbia Industries, Tri-Cities Technical Council, the Benton-Franklin United Way Board and Richland Federated Women’s Club.

She and her late husband were the parents of three children.

The Legislature is making plans to remember her, Boehnke said. No announcement of local services has been made.

This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 1:00 PM.