Emily Khoury Shetty (born January 11, 1984) is an American politician and attorney who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 18 since 2019.
After graduating from Catholic University, Shetty worked for U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns until 2012, first as a legislative assistant and then as his legislative director. From 2012 to 2014, she worked as the senior director of legislative affairs with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, afterwards working as a consultant for lobbyist groups Stanton Park Group and Horizon Government Affairs. In 2020, she started her own lobbying firm, Step Up Advocacy.[1][5]
From 2013 to 2014, and again from 2015 to 2018, Shetty was a member of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee.[1] In 2014, she unsuccessfully ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 18,[3] receiving 11 percent of the vote behind incumbents Ana Sol Gutierrez, Jeff Waldstreicher, and Al Carr.[6] Shetty ran again in 2018 after Waldstreicher announced he would run for the Maryland Senate,[7] winning the Democratic primary with 19.7 percent of the vote[8] and defeating Republican challenger Linda Willard in the general election with 30 percent of the vote.[9]
Maryland House of Delegates
Shetty in the House Appropriations Committee, 2023
Shetty was sworn into the House of Delegates on January 9, 2019. She was a member of the Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2022, afterwards serving in the Appropriations Committee. Since 2023, Shetty has served as the chair of the House Democratic Caucus.[1]
Shetty is married to her husband, Ash Shetty.[11] Together, they live in Kensington, Maryland,[12] and have one child.[1] She has a chronic autoimmune disorder.[13]
Political positions
Health care
During her 2014 House of Delegates campaign, Shetty said she supported increasing state investments in mental health care.[3]
During the 2021 legislative session, Shetty introduced legislation that would allow pharmacists to switch name brands. The bill passed and became law.[14]
In 2022, Shetty introduced a bill that would allow organ donors to decide whether their organs would be donated to research or a surgical transplant. The bill unanimously passed the Maryland General Assembly and became law.[15]
Minimum wage
Shetty supports indexing the state minimum wage to inflation.[16]
Policing
During the 2019 legislative session, Shetty introduced the Law Enforcement Trust and Transparency Act, which would establish statewide standards for officer-involved death investigations.[17][18]
In 2021, Shetty introduced a bill to limit how police could use genealogy websites and their databases. The bill passed and became law without Governor Larry Hogan's signature.[19]
Social issues
During the 2021 legislative session, Shetty introduced legislation that would allow transgender people to change their names without having to advertise it in a newspaper. The bill passed and became law.[20]
In 2022, Shetty supported legislation to raise the state's minimum marriage age to 17 years old.[21] She also supported the Abortion Care Access Act, which provided $3.5 million toward clinical reproductive services training for health care professionals.[22]
.jpg)