East Lyme — State Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, executive director of the newly renamed Niantic Children's Museum, is running for reelection in the 37th House District with a focus on supporting victims of domestic violence, increasing mental health funding and lowering prescription drug and health care costs.

Her Democratic challenger, retired speech language pathologist and current East Lyme Board of Education member Cate Steel, said she decided to run because she wants to make a difference, and she feels Cheeseman "basically voted no on everything that seems like it would involve helping people."

Both candidates running in the district, which includes all of East Lyme and Salem, sat down separately with The Day on Monday for interviews.

Steel objects to her opponent's votes against raising the minimum wage, implementing a paid family and medical leave program, banning bump stocks, codifying the "10 essential health benefits" covered under the Affordable Care Act into state law, convening a group to study whether and how the state should create a Medicaid public option, and taking away state funding from municipalities that don't comply with affordable housing requirements. Another bill Cheeseman voted against was the police accountability bill, which she said Monday "deserved a true vetting, a true public hearing."

"We need to have somebody in Hartford who will not just say no to everything," Steel said.

Cheeseman brought to her interview earlier in the day a list of bills she has co-sponsored and introduced. For 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic abruptly ended the regular session, that includes bills that would establish a youth suicide prevention pilot program, expand access to drugs to treat diabetes, establish a tax credit for businesses that employ people with developmental disabilities, exempt breastfeeding supplies from the sales tax, and more.

Cheeseman, whose late husband had Type 1 diabetes, was the only local legislator to testify during a listening session in July on a bill to cap insulin prices. She said she was proud to be the lead House Republican supporting the bill, which passed in special session.

Cheeseman was serving on the East Lyme Board of Selectmen when she was elected to the state General Assembly in 2016. She defeated Democratic candidate Beth Hogan in the open race with 56% of the vote. In 2018, she fended off a challenge from Hugh McKenney with 51.4% of votes.

Cheeseman and Steel, both 65, each emphasized their desire to listen to constituents. The tagline at the bottom of Steel's campaign signs is, "Your voice will be heard," while Cheeseman's is "Our Voice for East Lyme & Salem."

Cheeseman said she's "worked incredibly hard during the past four years to be the state representative who was present, who spoke to her constituents on a regular basis, who attended town events, who supported local businesses and really was an integral part of the communities that I represent."

Steel said the most common concerns voters bring up to her are COVID-19 and the economy, and sometimes racial justice. She would like to see more bias training, noting she doesn't know what that looks like but hopes to find out.

"We have to be anti-racist," Steel said. "We have to be aware, and we can't rely on people of color to do the work. We have to reach out."

Steel said in her 35-year career as a speech language pathologist and education administrator, not only did she hear what people had to say, she also helped them say it better. She said her career involved helping children "advocate for themselves in their own home, the schools, the community," and that she had to be creative under tight budgets.

She also said growing up with eight siblings meant she is used to being challenged on what she says.

Steel is married to Richard Steel and has two living adult children, and she lost a son to a gunshot wound 10 years ago. Steel said she believes people have the right to own guns but they should be responsible, that guns should be stored and locked.

Steel is on the board of Artreach, a nonprofit that supports mental health through the arts, and previously served on the boards of The Arc Eastern Connecticut and the Connecticut Storytelling Center. She has lived in East Lyme since 1996, having moved from Nebraska.

Cheeseman grew up in New London, attended Mount Holyoke College, lived in England for 11 years and moved to East Lyme in 1990. She served 18 years on the library board and three terms on the Board of Selectmen.

Candidates talk priorities

Cheeseman said she thinks Gov. Ned Lamont has "done a good job" handling the coronavirus, though her biggest regret — one she presumes Lamont shares — is that the state didn't prioritize nursing home safety early on.

"We have to figure out this COVID," Steel said. "We have to get back. We are not moving ahead with anything until COVID is under wraps. We have to have our health care system in place. Health care is a human right, and we can't have good mental health if we don't have good physical health, and you can't have good physical health if people don't have a job, a home and a community."

Steel, who has the endorsements of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club, also has stressed environmental issues in her platform.

She thinks the Connecticut Bottle Bill should be updated to increase the redemption rate from 5 cents to 10 cents, and to include nips bottles as well as water bottles and cans. She also has suggested partnering with the environmental nonprofit Surfrider Foundation.

Steel said environmental issues have always been important to her, saying she grew up living by the World War II-era slogan "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

Cheeseman said some of her priorities for 2021 are helping women entrepreneurs, focusing on job retraining to help Electric Boat and its supply chain, reducing health care and prescription drug costs and advocating for increased mental health funding.

Asked how she would handle budget deficits, Cheeseman said she would look at every department and start with zero-based budgeting, starting from the ground up and asking what is essential. She also suggested the state expand its participation in Results First, a Pew-MacArthur initiative that works with states to identify whether programs are working.

Asked about priorities if budget cuts are necessary, Steel said her non-negotiables are taking care of social services, nonprofits and veterans/military. She also thinks the state needs to bring in industry, create more public-private partnerships, promote tourism and foster regionalization.

Many Democrats and anti-Trump voters have criticized Republican state representatives and senators for staying silent on the president's actions, while Republicans in the state legislature say they're focused on the people of Connecticut or want their record to speak for itself.

As part of a questionnaire sent to all candidates in southeastern Connecticut, The Day has asked each candidate who they're supporting in the presidential election and why, and responses will run online later this month.

"Holly needs to disavow herself of her relationship to Trump," Steel said Monday. A few hours earlier, Cheeseman said the president has "said some things that I could never, ever defend, and as a Republican, that's not me." She added, "I will not indulge in ad hominem attacks. I will not be in a cult of personality. I will debate policy until the cows come home."

Cheeseman said she hopes people will look at her record, and that she doesn't do her job as a legislator without doing the homework.

e.moser@theday.com