Rep. Theresa Ulmer enjoys family time with her son Eli and daughter Henley. Henley, in a recent performance of "The Nutcracker". Spotlight on ... Rep. Theresa Ulmer Faith in God carries Yuma lawmaker By Jackee Coe, jackee.coe@azcapitoltimes.com For Rep. Theresa Ulmer, everything comes down to her faith. Ulmer, who keeps a wooden carving on her desk that says “faith,” said every choice she makes in her career and personal life tie back to God. “It’s what I gauge my decisions on,” she said. “You put God first, family second and your career third, and that’s how I model my life. If you keep those things in mind, that’s where the balance comes in.” The Democrat from District 24 said she grew up in a small town in Nebraska where she gained a strong sense of community and family values. “Growing up in a farm community, family is important, first of all, and your neighbors are relevant. Everything is intertwined,” she said. “You grow up with a sense that you help others and you put other people first. There’s just that common bond of the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Ulmer said her faith as an adult was shaped while attending church every Sunday as a child with her family, and she recalled a life-changing moment during a visit with her aunt just before she died of cancer. “I remember going to her bedside and I could see Jesus in her,” Ulmer said, as tears welled in her eyes. “She was so peaceful and happy, and I knew, even at 10 (years old), I knew she was going to a better place … at that moment I knew there was definitely a God.” Ulmer also learned the value of hard work from her parents and living on a farm, and said she started working at the local hardware store when she was 12 years old. “I think I might have made 50 cents an hour and I started out stocking Hallmark cards, and they had a bow machine because they wrapped gifts and I made bows,” she said. “Within a very short amount of time I was running the cash register and I handled the fireworks sales.” Ulmer said she moved to Yuma in the early 1980s and then to California in the late ‘80s, where her work ethic led her to start several businesses of her own, including a financial accounting company, business consulting and an ice cream manufacturing company. When her son was born in 1996, she sold her business and moved back to Yuma because she wanted to raise her kids as a stay-at-home mom in a rural community like the one she grew up in. Ulmer said she had always been interested in politics, but that having children is what motivated her to get involved with the state Democratic Party as a community organizer in 2000. She decided to run for the Legislature in 2006 while she was working to recruit candidates. The incumbent was not running for re-election in the District 24 House seat and one of the candidates decided at the last minute to stay out of the race, so she decided to go for it. Ulmer’s interest in politics and desire to impact her community played a part in the decision to run for office, but she said a financial need also was a factor. She was going through a divorce and had realized that she was going to be a single mom and needed to earn money, she said. “I didn’t know how it would work out with my kids, but I just thought, you know what, this just feels like the right thing for me to do,” she said. “I prayed about it a lot and just really felt like it was a good time.” Ulmer operates a business consulting company in Yuma, attends the University of Phoenix and sells Mary Kay cosmetics. She said her life is like “juggling a knife, an orange and a bus,” but that her faith helps her keep her priorities straight. “My goal is to put God first, family second and my career third because I think that… raising my kids is the most important job that God gave me,” she said. “It’s worked out much better than I could have planned.” Ulmer said her journey to the Legislature has been a personal metamorphosis. “The whole experience has been really amazing,” she said. “I think the phrase is let go and let God, and that’s my life. When things change so dramatically – I (had) this vision of my life (that) I’d be married forever and raise my kids and all these things – and that rug is pulled out from under you and you go, ‘Oh, OK, new direction.’ “If you’re willing to really trust in God, the results are way beyond your wildest expectations.”