Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

Can you be a man of faith and a politician?

Rep. Winters reflects on his role as a pastor and a representative in the Wyoming House

THERMOPOLIS – It is a common belief that there are no honest politicians and that they say whatever they need to say to get elected, even if what they are saying goes against what they really believe and plan to do. So believing that a pastor can be a politician is a stretch, too hard for many to believe.

But when Nathan Winters, associate pastor for the First Baptist Church in Thermopolis, decided to run for the position of Wyoming House Representative for House District 28 in 2013 he didn’t see where there would be a conflict of interest, and to this day, still doesn’t.

Winters stated that when he ran he made sure that he was abundantly clear about where he stood on certain issues. “That’s the most crucial decision, when you are voting for someone you need to know what they believe because there are certain areas, life, liberty, the traditional conservative values that America and Wyoming has always stood for, that I will not bend on. I was always abundantly clear with those who would elect me; this is who I am, this is where I stand,” Winters said.

“I had someone ask me one time, because I am very strong on the subject of abortion. I believe that it is murder. I had someone ask me the first time I ran, where I stood on the subject of abortion and I was very clear and they said, ‘I don’t agree with you on that. How can you represent me?’ I said, ‘I will be very honest with you, on the subject of abortion and where I stand.’ I said, ‘there isn’t really an in-between between your position and mine because you cannot have a half dead child. So there are times when you are very clear and express exactly what you believe. You’re honest and you let people know it,” he added.

“I think having a moral background, having an ethic that you are clear about helps drive thoughtful solid thinking in the midst of debate. Here’s the thing; if you don’t have a moral ethical person running, you have an amoral or unethical person running and that amorality in essence becomes so malleable that a person can be immoral. Amorality doesn’t mean that you vote with no morals it just means that you are susceptible to the morals of the most persuasive person, and that is a dangerous thing. That’s something that I think we should work very hard to stay away from in our culture,” Winters said.

Winters explained that people get frustrated about

politics in general because at times they feel that they are voting for someone who walks around with a finger in the air, just trying to see which way the wind blows. “I think having someone of substance and fiber who is clear about what they believe is what America needs, that’s who our founders were. They were studious men who knew what they believe and would go and articulate it to the people back home and they thought, ‘that’s a person who cares,’” Winters said.

“A pursuit of truth and honesty has always been a deep desire of mine that does resonate with people. I will also say the Wyoming Legislature is different than the overall perception of politics. The reason I say that is because when you have people that are going down there to serve 40 days one year, 20 the next, they are living next door to you the majority of the year, you know them. I’ve spent, in February, 13 years ministering here and I saw people’s faces when I made decisions down there,” he added.

Regarding the Wyoming Legislature being different, he said, “I think being a person of moral substance which is historically what people looked for in politicians in America, that is so vital important and that’s the reason why I think that even while I was there I had the opportunity to develop deep friendships across the spectrum because, being someone who is trust worthy is the most important. The other thing to is, if you break someone’s trust, you rarely ever are able to win it back and so you go down there to do something and that actually is one of the foremost things on your mind being straight forward, honest and working hard in good faith. If you want to be successful at it, that’s actually something that you want to pursue. If there are people who are not honest and trustworthy they may be there but they will not be effective long term. Someone may try to do that once but you burn someone and they are not going to trust you again. Actually being trustworthy, it’s not just a pastoral thing, it’s something that one would have to learn very quickly if they want to be effective at all. I think people are pretty straight forward at least in Wyoming and that’s a good thing.”

RUNNING FOR STATE AUDITOR

When Winters decided to leave the Wyoming Legislature to pursue the state auditor position, he did it with a heavy heart but felt compelled to do so. Winters stated with tears in his eyes that he loved the people of his community and that he was saying that not as a politician, as he is no longer a politician but as Nathan Winters, local citizen. “To give that up, I would explain to people that it was because I believe it to be the best way to serve the people back home in the long run by giving them the information that is necessary, that can only come through the auditor’s office. It was a desire to serve the people of House District 28 but also the entire state in the same way that drove me to run for the state auditor’s office,” Winters said.

One of the things that prompted Winters to run for auditor was the lack of government transparency in Wyoming. “When you look at the scope of our budget and you look at the compressed timeframe in the Legislature to actually make solid decisions on that, the one thing you have to rely on is transparency in government. You have to make sure you are seeing the whole scope; you can only make good decisions if you have all the information. Wyoming is known as one of the three least transparent states in the United States,” Winters said.

“In most states you can go to the web portal and you can take a look at how your state spent its money over the last budget period. You can compare it to previous periods; you can take a look at it as a whole. I was thinking of one in West Virginia, I really looked at this and this was a model of what I wanted to see in Wyoming, where you can go and look at pie charts and graphs, however you like to see it, you can look at everything in the aggregate, but then you can also click through and look down to each line item in there, if you have the time. Someone, the press, could take a look at how government spent its money over the previous year and report it to the people. Wyoming doesn’t have that, the information is there but it is spread over a large number of places. A lot of times the actual line items are given to members on the appropriations committee in the Legislature, they can see everything, It’s kind of in an old-fashioned book but it certainly is not the modern way in which actually the vast majority of people in most states enjoy today, that needs to change. I believe daylight is one of the greatest disinfectants in government and if people can see how their dollars are being spent they are going to be able to weigh-in to the conversation more and more. That is how government in America is supposed to work. We can do better at that, I know we can do better than that,” he stated.

Winters feels that even though he was not elected as the state auditor that he still did well in the polls. He stated that in two and half months you can only shake so many hands and talk to so many people. “We actually did pretty well considering how little money we had to spend. There is a point in the middle of the campaign where every candidate begins to recognize there is no way to get your information to people unless you send it through the mail. There are two reactions to that because to put out one mailer is right around $30,000, the primary cost there is postage. That was where I ran into a challenge; I was only able to put out one mailer at the very end,” Winters said.

“You don’t make money in the Wyoming Legislature, you don’t. You get paid for basically salary replacement for the days you are in session and you get a per diem so that you can get a place to stay while you are there and beyond that there are no benefits. Usually, you just break even, at best. In Wyoming and with the Wyoming Legislature it works very differently than the perception most people have across the country,” he added.

INTO THE FUTURE

While Winters’ term as a legislator ends Dec. 31, he still plans on working with the Wyoming Legislature in a different role. “There are still some things that I know and believe so strongly need to be advocated for in the Legislature that I am going to take my family and move to Cheyenne and work with others to advocate for; religious liberty on life issues, on the traditional family values that Wyoming has historically stood for and stand up in organization. There isn’t anything like it in the state of Wyoming, many states have an organization who will work on family issues and Wyoming doesn’t have something like that. That is a real need that I have seen and I feel strongly the burden to go and fill that need,” Winters explained.

 
 
Rendered 01/07/2025 05:29