Goshen County representative Matt Teeters lost his legislative seat in Tuesday’s primary election. His challenger, Cheri Steinmetz, says she won because Teeters didn’t recognize how important constitutional rights are to his constituents.
“One of the biggest issues for our country is people want to make sure that their constitutional rights are protected. They see a lot of overreach at the federal level, and some at the state level as well.”
Steinmetz said Teeters decision to add a footnote to the budget at the last minute to block the Board of Education committee’s ability to adopt Next Generation Science Standards was an example of that sort of overreach.
“Matt Teeters was the chair of the Education Committee in the House and on the Select Education Committed as well. And so voters were very concerned about the direction of our education system and they just wanted another option.”
Although Steinmetz isn’t a fan of the science standards either, she says the move lacked transparency and was unfair to Wyoming citizens and the results of the primary election show Goshen County voters agree.
Steinmetz says her campaign succeeded because she listened when Goshen County voters expressed a lot of worry over the decision by legislators to strip an elected official--Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill—of her powers.
Steinmetz says her goal is to re-establish voters’ constitutional rights by being accountable and available to her constituents.