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Cynthia Dianne Steel

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Cynthia Dianne Steel
Image of Cynthia Dianne Steel
Prior offices
Nevada 8th Judicial District Court Family Division Department G
Elections and appointments
Last election

June 14, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

Valdosta State College, 1977

Law

California Western School of Law, 1990

Personal
Birthplace
Wichita Falls, Texas
Religion
Lutheran
Profession
Nevada state district court judge, supreme court commissioned senior judge
Contact

Campaign website

Cynthia Dianne Steel was a judge for Department G of the Nevada 8th Judicial District Court Family Division. She left office on January 8, 2019.

Steel (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Nevada's 1st Congressional District. She lost in the Republican primary on June 14, 2022.

Steel completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Cynthia Dianne Steel was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. She earned a bachelor's degree from Valdosta State College in 1977 and a law degree from the California Western School of Law in 1990.[1]

Elections

2022

See also: Nevada's 1st Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Nevada District 1

Incumbent Dina Titus defeated Mark Robertson and Ken Cavanaugh in the general election for U.S. House Nevada District 1 on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Dina Titus
Dina Titus (D)
 
51.6
 
115,700
Image of Mark Robertson
Mark Robertson (R) Candidate Connection
 
46.0
 
103,115
Image of Ken Cavanaugh
Ken Cavanaugh (L)
 
2.5
 
5,534

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 224,349
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1

Incumbent Dina Titus defeated Amy Vilela in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1 on June 14, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Dina Titus
Dina Titus
 
79.8
 
33,565
Image of Amy Vilela
Amy Vilela
 
20.2
 
8,482

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 42,047
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Nevada District 1 on June 14, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Mark Robertson
Mark Robertson Candidate Connection
 
30.1
 
12,375
Image of David Brog
David Brog Candidate Connection
 
17.6
 
7,226
Image of Carolina Serrano
Carolina Serrano Candidate Connection
 
17.1
 
7,050
Image of Cresent Hardy
Cresent Hardy
 
11.6
 
4,790
Image of Cynthia Dianne Steel
Cynthia Dianne Steel Candidate Connection
 
11.6
 
4,782
Image of Jane Adams
Jane Adams Candidate Connection
 
5.1
 
2,081
Image of Morgun Sholty
Morgun Sholty Candidate Connection
 
4.9
 
1,998
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Jessie Turner
 
2.1
 
845

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 41,147
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Steel's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

2014

See also: Nevada judicial elections, 2014
Steel ran for re-election to the Eighth Judicial District Court.
Primary: She was elected without opposition in the primary on June 10, 2014.
[2][3] 

2006

In 2006, Steel ran for a seat on the Nevada Supreme Court, challenging incumbent Justice Michael Douglas.

Candidate IncumbentSeatPrimary %Election %
Supreme-Court-Elections-badge.png
Michael Douglas ApprovedA YesSeat F37%48.3%
Cynthia Dianne Steel NoSeat F32.9%36.2%
"None of these candidates" Seat F14.6%15.3%
John Calvert Seat F15.3%


Election results are from the Nevada Secretary of State for the Primary Election and General Election.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Cynthia Dianne Steel completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Steel's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

As a retired District Judge of 22 years followed by 3 years of work as a Commissioned Senior Judge, I decided to run for Congress where I will assist in work for my district in CD1. I also served as an Assemblywoman in Nevada Legislature in 1995.
  • Save our Children: Get the Federal Department of Education out of our state's responsibilities to our citizens.
  • Stop spending money we don't have and stop printing money for products that are not available, driving the costs up for the consumer. This harms those citizens with lower wages or on fixed incomes.
  • The Federal government is not attending to its own business of border protection and revision of our immigration policies. How many more elections will we use the DACA crisis to whip up attention?
We must have a working government. Right now it is broken. Each side attempts to increase the distrust in the other political party. The word-smithing is extreme and borders on pure and deliberate misinformation. This conduct will not endear our elected officials to their constituents. The extremes are too extreme and the people in the middle feel that they have no say in the reasonable direction of the country. The Congress MUST police itself and return to the stately quality we all expect and deserve from those chosen to represent us. There needs to be a moratorium on bills that address more than one subject in order to clearly understand the budget, and the necessity for the bill for all Americans.
Truth and honesty. (As a judge, those were my favorite qualities in witnesses, and it works for elected officials too.)

Next in line is the ability to compare and analyze the facts about a bill, AFTER listening to both sides and reviewing the information presented. As a judge, I was not to engage in independent research, as a Representative, I have the duty to research the issues and their pros as well as their cons.
I am responsive to the voter.

I am prepared when I have a project to present or a case to hear.
I will work overtime just to get a job completed on time.
I listen.

I care.
Representatives have the responsibility to work on matters of Federal law, such as writing and introducing bills, to oversee the administration of public policy, and to serve as a representative assembly.

Unique responsibilities include the revenue raising bills, choosing a President for the United States where no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, and initiating impeachment proceedings against a president or other federal officer, including Supreme Court Justices
President Kennedy's assassination occurred while I was in class in the 5th grade. Our homeroom teacher came in and told the students what had happened through tears of sadness and uncertainty.
My first employment was as a farm hand working in tobacco fields. I was 17 at the time and worked the next season prior to going to college. Born the first of 8, I had the opportunity to assist my parents during a financially hard time in their lives.

I next worked in the cafeteria line during college in exchange for my meal ticket. Neither job was glamorous, however, they taught me to take available jobs to keep going in a forward direction. Both of these jobs, and several to follow, made me who I am and got me to where I am today.
The Social Animal, by David Brooks.

This book delves into the decisions to engage in a civil contract with others and the instinctive impulses of our animal nature.
1. The power of the purse. As the representative to Nevada, I will not engage in "favor swapping" as a means to bribe my colleagues into agreeing to support spending. That is poor use of taxpayer entrusted funds.

2. Our shorter terms require most representatives to engage earnestly and frequently with their voters, we are closer to the truth of the needs of our community and should be the voice of our constituents.

3. We have the Constitutional duty to police our government, recommending removal of those elected officials or appointed judges and justices for high crimes and misdemeanors. This will instill more confidence between the government and the people.
The learning curve is shorter if the elected person has previous experience in government or politics. It is not insurmountable. I have experience in both categories and stand ready to hit the ground running.
The most obvious challenge is to reign in the inflation and become more financially stable. This run-away spending will visit itself on generations to come if we do not take action now. Without stability, our nation is susceptible to ruin and falling from the field of world leadership.

Mandates must end. There are several procedures to address emergencies that will instill a sense of trust in the reason for the emergency actions that need to be taken. The decision must not lay in the hands of one branch of government, or one elected official. In this time of heightened mistrust between entities, no one division or person will get the approval of all the people to act in concert without the seal of approval from all factions.
I will give my all to any committee assignment. I am confident that I would be helpful on the Judiciary Committee, and committee or sub-committee regarding immigration as well as those committees dealing with the Department of Education.
n/a
A two-year term keeps representatives close to their constituents. The Forefathers had that part right. It does not help with completion of some projects started in the House, unless the Representative is re-elected.

Most of the two years is devoted to fundraising to help in keeping the position. A change in campaign finance laws could alleviate that problem. For instance, if the candidate could only receive contributions from voters on his list of voters it would cure two problems: (1) less time spent raising money and in turn more time doing the people's business and, (2) the re-focus on the citizens that put the Representative in office.

I will draft a bill to implement the campaign contribution laws when elected.
I oppose term limits on elected officials. Term limits is a tool to get rid of popular candidates. Usually, the official is one that was elected by other States that our State doesn't like. Just get more people educated on civic responsibility and inform them as to why the person is not effective.

I am for term limits on government staffers. Their level of influence is great and can be detrimental to the vision of the citizens in another state.
Nevada's own Barbara Vucanovich was an incredible Representative. She was the first Representative from District 2, the largest district in the country at the time. She worked her way up through the ranks and won her first race in a landslide. She fought for less government spending and lower taxes. (Sound familiar?)
During my time as a District Judge I was exposed to the lives of the constituents county-wide. Their needs are even more dire today. Worries with jobs, inflation, immigration and elections keep the people busy in their own lives without much time to spend on matters of politics. They don't trust the government due to the many pitfalls they have encountered in life and starting up small businesses. They don't know who to believe in matters of policy and reasons presented to them for changes in taxes, health care and education.

I know their struggles and want very much to work with my colleagues to improve their lives and their trust in the government again.
We have been trying "My Way or the Highway" for many years now. It is not working. We must begin to listen to each other without putting words in the other side's mouth. We must agree where there are commonalities and try to come to some even-handed solution to go forward. Currently, we are at a stalemate. Lives are being destroyed and progress is handicapped. The people we represent deserve better.
One great priority is to eliminate, or to extremely limit any involvement from the Department of Education in our State education system. I plan to lock arms with other Representatives to defund that plank in the President's budget. Education has only gotten worse since 1979 when the DOE was implemented. Our State is 50th in the states for education. I want any money pledged to education to be refunded to the states from whence it came.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Education

Steel received an undergraduate degree from Valdosta State College in 1977, and earned her J.D. from California Western School of Law in 1990.[4]

Career

Awards and associations

  • 2001-2002: President, Nevada District Judges Association
  • 2000-2001: Vice president, Nevada District Judges Association
  • 2001-2002: Member, State Judicial Council
  • 1998-Present: President, Eighth Judicial District Court Pro Bono Foundation
  • 1997-Present: Clark County Bench Bar Committee
  • 1997-Present: Family Law Section Executive Council, Nevada State Bar
  • 1997-1998: Board of Trustees, Clark County Law Library[4]

Evaluations

2010 judicial performance evaluation

The Las Vegas Review‐Journal performed a survey of attorneys with first-hand knowledge of state judges in 2010. Of 796 survey respondents, 58 percent said that they would not recommend Judge Steel for retention to the court.[5]

2013 judicial performance evaluation

In 2013, the Las Vegas Review-Journal sponsored a survey of 902 lawyers who rated Nevada Supreme Court justices and judges located in Clark County. 65 percent of respondents voted in favor of keeping Steel on the bench. The average vote in favor of retention for all 88 judges evaluated was 71 percent.[6]

See also

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External links

Candidate

U.S. House Nevada District 1
  • Website
    		•

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 17, 2022
    2. ↑ Clark County Nevada, "Election: Candidate Filing in Clark County," accessed February 13, 2014 Select "Election Year: 2014"
    3. ↑ Silver State Election Night Results, "2014 Primary Election Results - Judicial," accessed June 11, 2014
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named bio
    5. ↑ Las Vegas Review‐Journal, "Lawyers give poor scores to nine judges," May 10, 2010
    6. ↑ Las Vegas Review Journal, "2013 Judicial Performance Evaluation," accessed September 23, 2014


    Nevada's current delegation to the United States Congress
    Senators
    Catherine Masto (D)
    Jacky Rosen (D)
    Representatives
    District 1
    District 2
    District 3
    Susie Lee (D)
    District 4
    Democratic Party (5)
    Republican Party (1)


    Nevada courts

    Federal courts:

    Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Nevada • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Nevada

    State courts:

    Nevada Supreme Court • Nevada Court of Appeals • Nevada District Courts • Nevada Justice Courts • Nevada Municipal Courts • Clark County Family Court, Nevada

    State resources:

    Courts in Nevada • Nevada judicial elections • Judicial selection in Nevada


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