From ranch to statehouse: Stevi student elected Girls State governor

by Mike Hudgins

When Adelaide Meyer left Stevensville for Montana Girls State this past summer, she wasn’t going without a plan.

Governor was the goal.

“I always intended for governor to be the end goal for me,” Meyer said. “If I’m gonna be here for a week, I better make the most of it.”

Make the most of it she did.

Meyer, a student at Stevensville High School, was elected governor during the week-long American Legion Auxiliary (ALA) Girls State program in Helena, which puts high school students from across Montana into a working version of state government.

Girls State brings together students entering their senior year to learn about government, public service and civic responsibility. Participants write legislation, organize political parties, campaign for office and work their way through a mock legislative process.

Students are selected from communities across Montana through local ALA organizations.

For Meyer, attending was something she had been thinking about for years.

Her grandmother, Colleen Meyer, went to Girls State when she was the same age and continued talking about it long afterward.

“She still talks about it to this day,” Meyer said, adding that her grandmother described how getting involved and putting herself out there affected her life after high school.

Meyer had also developed an interest of her own in public policy, specifically agricultural policy and the role local and state governments can play in Montana agriculture.

Cheryl Burgmeier, ALA Girls State chairman for Post 94, has known Meyer for several years and encouraged her to take advantage of the opportunity. Burgmeier said Meyer impressed her early on and seemed like a natural fit for the program.

Once Meyer arrived in Helena, however, wanting to become governor and actually getting elected were two different things.

Her first task was finding someone to run alongside her as lieutenant governor. That meant meeting the other students and deciding who she thought she could work with before the campaigning even began.

Once she had a running mate, the pair developed campaign materials and began making their case to the other delegates.

Meyer first had to win her party’s nomination, delivering speeches and campaigning within the party caucus. After doing that, she and her running mate advanced to the general election, where they faced the other party before the entire Girls State delegation.

The campaign gave Meyer a firsthand look at what goes into seeking public office, but winning the election was only part of the week.

Once elected, the job shifted from campaigning to governing.

Meyer worked with the other elected officials, including lieutenant governors, state auditors and secretaries of state, as well as the Boys State governor. Together, they considered legislation written by students and decided which bills would be passed or vetoed.

The week also introduced her to students from across Montana and to issues she might not have otherwise encountered.

“I learned a lot about the variety of people around the state and their different passions,” Meyer said. The range of bills brought forward also showed her what mattered to young people from different parts of Montana.

Her own proposed legislation reflected something already close to home.

Meyer wrote a bill calling for K-12 education about rangeland and property management. Her responsibilities as governor kept her from presenting the bill herself, so another student was chosen to sponsor it.

The bill made it through committee and the Senate before time ran out for it to reach the House.

For Meyer, agriculture isn’t simply an academic interest.

She was raised on a ranch and operates her own vertically integrated pork operation, raising hogs and selling retail cuts in the community.

“Agriculture is really close to my heart,” she said.

That connection is also shaping what she wants to do after high school.

Meyer plans to attend Montana State University and pursue a degree in agricultural education, either focusing on broad-field teaching or policy. If she follows the policy route, she said she wants to explore how local and state governments can better serve Montana farmers and ranchers.

“I really would like to do a deeper dive into how I can make changes within our local and state governments to positively impact local farmers and ranchers and the agriculture industry as a whole,” Meyer said.

Meyer went to Helena with the idea that if she was going to spend a week at Girls State, she might as well see how far she could take it. She came home as governor, with a better understanding of how government works and a clearer idea of where it might fit into her own future.

For now, that means finishing high school, heading to Montana State and staying close to the agriculture that helped put her on that path in the first place.

As for how far she can take it from there, she’s already shown she isn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and find out.