Harshman, Steve

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Steve Harshman has served in House District 37 as a WY Representative for Natrona County from 2003 to the present.  He has received a negative score for Representation and Competence.  While he is still being assessed for Integrity, Harshman has already received a Low Trust score.

He is up for re-election in 2024.

“I will continue to make sure our Constitution is followed, our rights protected, our institutions are strengthened.”

From https://oilcity.news/community/elections/2022/07/11/candidate-questionnaire-steve-harshman-for-house-district-37/

Overall Harshman scored a (–) for Representation for his opposition to transparency of legislator vote records.

Attendance

It appears that Harshman missed 22 votes in 2023 General Session across five different days:

• 2/3/23 – Corporations Committee votes for HB204; HB279
• 2/14/23 – 3rd Reading for SF18; SF20; SF24; SF41; SF59; SF63; SJ7.  Concurrence votes for HB14; HB16; HB18; HB20; HB61
• 2/15/23 – 3rd Reading for SF8; SF9; SF11; SF31; SF51
• 2/23/23 – Concurrence for HB108
• 3/3/23 – Concurrence for SF96

Public Conduct

Harshman publicly dropped the F-Bomb during official House proceedings in the 2021 Special Session dealing with COVID mandates related bills.  Harshman’s juvenile conduct was apparently in response to a fellow legislator calling for an official roll-call vote on a bill.  Harshman’s response to this legislator calling for a roll call vote was to call him a little f*cker.  (Video here.)

It is relevant that in 2002 Harshman was accused of assaulting a Natrona County High School football team member for using profane language.  Harshman’s defense was that he thought the profanity was personally directed at him.   See more here.

Aside from Harshman’s profane language during public proceedings, more grievous is Harshman’s opposition to transparency of legislator vote records.  If an official roll-call vote is not recorded on a bill during certain readings, there is no public record of any legislator’s vote.  Every legislator’s vote on every bill (there were only 21 bills) during the 2021 Special Session were extremely important to all Wyoming citizens.  The transparency of recorded roll call votes is what Harshman opposed.

Sponsorship History

In 2023 Harshman was the primary sponsor of 10 bills, and co-sponsored 19 bills.  Favored sponsorship topics appear to be education related.

Committee Assignments

2023-House Revenue – Chairman
2023-House Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions
2023-Select Committee on Capital Financing & Investments
2023-Select Committee on School Facilities

Harshman scored a (–) for Constitutional Competence with an average of 38% on the constitutional issues listed below.

For more on the bills used to analyze these scores click here.  Special hat-tip goes out to Evidence Based Wyoming for use of their statistical tool to generate the following vote scores:

Conflicts

Still being assessed…

Employment/Income

According to Harshman’s legislative webpage he is employed as a Teacher/Coach.  According to Harshman’s 2023 State Elected Officials Financial Disclosure available at Wyofile, he reports that he is only a teacher, with no other income reported.

Memberships/Civic Organizations

None found.

Campaign Contributions

The table below shows all campaign contributions reported by the WY Secretary of State for Steven Mark Harshman; Steve Harshman, dating back to 2012.  It is noteworthy that Harshman has been serving since 2003, thus there are 11 years of campaign contributions that we were unable to access.

From 2012 to 2022 Harshman has received approximately 169 contributions that total approximately $62,375.  Of the 169 donations, approximately 149 were from PACs &/or campaign committees.  The total amount Harshman received from PACs &/or campaign committees was approximately $57,775.00, which is approximately 92% of all contributions received.

Noteworthy contributions are:

• $5,000 from Wyoming Hope (RINO donor)
• $3,500 total from Wyoming teacher’s union (WY EDUCATION ASSN. PAC FOR EDUCATION)
• $1,050 total from True family dynasty members
• $4,750 total from ESG Compliant Energy Company PACs
  • $3,500 total from DECPAC
  • $100 from MDU Resources Group Good Government Fund
  • $250 from NextEra Energy PAC
  • $900 total from Pacific Power/Rocky Mountain Power PAC
• $800 total from Pfizer PAC
• $1,500 total from WY Hospital Association PAC
• $200 from WY Medical Society PAC (WYO PAC)

Click the arrows at the top of columns to sort the data by name, date, $ amount, etc.  (Data is publicly available records obtained from the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Wyoming’s Campaign Finance Information System)

HOW REP. HARSHMAN VOTED AGAINST YOUR VALUES, TAX, BUDGET, AND SPENDING, TAKES AWAY YOUR VOTE, AND OTHER BILLS

VOTE RATING SITES 

• American Conservative Union (CPAC) – Tax, Spend, Budget 15% out of 100% http://ratings.conservative.org/
• WyoRino – 23% out of 100% for four-year average https://wyorino.com/
• WyoVote – One of three worst Republicans, below 2 Democrats for conservative votes “House of Representatives“.

This is only a small example of Rep. Harshman’s liberal voting record. Go to wyoleg.gov to research further.