Newly elected State Rep. Mark Shirey says he is an eye doctor, not a politician.
A Dekalb County native and current Mobile resident, Shirey has operated a Doctor Optometry practice in West Mobile for two decades.
Shirey is a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a bachelor’s degree in medical technology and later received his Doctorate of Optometry from Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tenn.
Shirey said he will bring a wealth of healthcare knowledge to the Legislature.
“I was a phlebotomist before I worked as a lab tech, and then I came back to the same hospital as a microbiologist and a medical technologist to work there for 10 years before I went back to college to get my doctorate,” Shirley told Alabama Daily News. “I’ve been in health care my entire life and have a unique perspective.”
As the previous president of the Alabama Optometric Association, Shirey combined his career with legislative interest as he advocated to provide greater access to eye care for Alabamians — giving him firsthand experience in the State House.
Shirey campaigned on being an outsider that was tired of seeing the “same old same old” in Montgomery.
“We’ve been moving with education which is a great thing. But take our prison system; we have kicked that can down the road for so long. And we can’t kick it anymore,” Shirey said. “Let’s go and do what we need to do to serve our constituents.”
Shirey won the GOP runoff with 61.5% of the vote and went on to win House seat 100 in the general election last November. Former Rep. Victor Gaston, R-Mobile, held the seat since 1982 but announced his retirement ahead of the 2022 election.
House District 100 is in central Mobile County.
Home of the fourth largest high school in the state, Baker High School, Shirey says education is the top issue for his district. He supports expanded school choice options.
“I’m looking for any bill that will serve to improve education,” Shirey said. “As long as we don’t harm our public-school systems in the process, I’m a big supporter. I think the funding should follow the student, and parents should have more control over their children’s education.”
Shirey has been assigned to the Health; Commerce and Small Business; and Constitution, Campaigns, and Elections committees.
“I am concentrating on learning how to be the best legislator so that I can be as effective as I can be,” Shirey said. “So right now, I am not carrying any legislation, but we haven’t started the session yet, and something may come up.”
Q&A with Rep. Mark Shirey:
Q: This isn’t your first time running for public office. Why did you choose this seat to run for and what made this time different?
A: “This time was different because I had a lot more experience. I had never run for office before when I ran for State Senate, but I actually loved the process. I love talking to people, getting out there and seeing different things; it was very enjoyable for me.
I’ve known Dr. Gaston for 20 years and had even talked to him about running for his seat several terms ago, but he always wanted to run one more term. This time he called me and said he wasn’t running, so I decided to put my name in the hat again.”
Q: Throughout your campaign, you referred to yourself as an “outsider.” Can you talk a bit about what that means and how your outside perspective may benefit you in Montgomery?
A: “I tell myself that I’m not a politician. As a doctor, I can sit here and talk to patients and constituents one-on-one without being in the process and not coming from another political position.
I’ve never had a political position in my life. I’m a businessman and really self-made. I didn’t inherit anything as far as my business goes; I did all my business myself. So, I made all the mistakes, and all my successes are mine alone.”
Q: On your campaign website, you mentioned being tired of the “same old same old happening in Montgomery.” What are some of the changes you hope to bring to the Legislature?
A: “…Let’s just do it, whether that’s prison systems, helping our rural hospitals, whatever we can do for mental health and whatever we can do to be good stewards of people’s tax dollars.”
Q: As a small business owner, you mentioned that you have seen the government affect the daily operations of small businesses. Can you talk more about that — what would you like to change?
A: “As a small businessman, you run into interruptions in what you’re doing daily from different bureaucratic processes trying to pay your sales tax, getting taxed on different things, and ultimately getting taxed two or three times on other things. It’s really daunting to try to keep up with the bureaucratic red tape when you’re trying to run a practice and trying to run a business. So, anything we can do to reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses, I am all for it.”
Q: Medical provider groups and associations have asked for years for Medicaid expansion in Alabama. It’s not up to the Legislature, but as a healthcare professional, do you think Medicaid expansion would be the right move for Alabama?
A: “I think that’s going to be a really tough lift, just from sheer cost alone. We’re getting estimates; when we talk to one person, we get one estimate, and when we talk to another person, we get another estimate.
We’re looking at anywhere from $170 million to upwards of $300 million in additional costs, and we’re already spending (nearly a) billion dollars on Medicaid each year. That’s at least a third of our entire general fund budget.
… So, I think we need to do something to help our rural hospitals. We have to do this because many of those are closing, harming their access to care. So, we have to do something. I don’t know that we have the funds, and I don’t know that expanding Medicaid is the correct option.”