TORRINGTON – With March being Women’s history month, the Torrington Telegram will be highlighting prominent women in the Goshen County community.
Our first feature is on Cheri Steinmetz, Wyoming Senator for District 3. Steinmetz has been the Senator for District 3 (SD3) since Jan. 7, 2019. Before becoming a Senator, Steinmetz served as a member of the Wyoming House of Representatives for District 5 from Jan. 5, 2015 to Jan. 7, 2019.
“As far as I can tell, I am the first female to hold office in both House District 5 and Senate District 3,” Steinmetz said.
Steinmetz said she realized her need to get into politics shortly after Obamacare was passed. She said she noticed the country was headed full steam toward socialized medicine.
When she decided to get into politics, her goal was to preserve the Wyoming way of life she had come to know and love.
“I had no political aspirations,” Steinmetz said. “I just wanted my daughter and someday her children, along with all of her generation, to know the freedoms of the Wyoming and the America that I grew up in.”
Steinmetz was born in Torrington and grew up in Goshen County. She and her brother were raised on their family farm, just north of Lingle. Family was always a big part of her life growing up.
Her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were a constant part of her life. They’d do everything from branding cattle, farming and celebrating all of the holidays together.
After graduating high school, Steinmetz attended Eastern Wyoming College (EWC). While attending EWC, her Industrial Arts professor Pat O’Conner, had a big impact on her. He taught her that if she didn’t like something, she could be the one to step up and make a difference.
“It was a typical day in woods class, and I was complaining about how unorganized the cheerleaders were,” Steinmetz said. “He [O’Conner] simply told me, ‘If you don’t like it, stop complaining, get involved and change it.’”
In 2012, while on a trip to Ukraine with the Wyoming LEAD agricultural leadership program, was when Steinmetz knew she needed to get involved and change the way things seemed to be headed.
While on the trip, Steinmetz noticed how the country had been basically destroyed by the Soviet Union. There were countless abandoned factories and rusty power plants and non-producing agricultural land.
“A once productive country that fed Europe had been devastated by the same ideology that we see trying to take hold in America today,” Steinmetz said.
While on that trip, Steinmetz noticed there was one thing helping the country heal itself, a return to God.
“The churches in Ukraine had been either destroyed or shuttered during the Soviet occupation,” Steinmetz said. “They were all being opened back up and restored as the citizens had become keenly aware that returning to God was the answer to rebuilding their country.”
With the pandemic having effects on all aspects of our daily lives, one of the biggest things the Wyoming State Senate has been working on is the state budget.
This year, Steinmetz is serving on the Senate Appropriations Committee and they have been dealing with the task of tackling the state of Wyoming budget.
“We found ourselves facing a budget deficit of $1.5 billion dollars,” Steinmetz said. “Things have improved a little, but we have still had to reduce spending by $446 million on the General Fund side of the budget.”
The 2021 Wyoming legislative session is in full swing and there’s more than a few concerns on the minds of state politicians. Some of those include public health orders, preventing closures of coal fired power plants and election integrity.
While Steinmetz knows the hard work will continue, her main priorities remain seeing her neighbors succeed, serving her community and ensuring we all enjoy our freedoms.
“I want to see my neighbors, family and friends have the opportunity to enjoy the blessing of freedom in a prosperous country,” Steinmetz said. “It is an honor to serve SD3 and I will always work to be worthy of the trust our community has placed in me to represent them.”
