Marie Steichen (died September 2006) was a Democratic politician from Woonsocket, South Dakota, who gained fame for winning a local election two months after her losing her battle with cancer. In the general election of November 7, 2006 she defeated, by a vote of 100 to 64[1], the incumbent Republican candidate Merlin Feistner for the post of commissioner of Jerauld County in the U.S. state of South Dakota.[2][3] This was her first try for political office. She and her husband Harold lived on a farm south of Lane, South Dakota. In the primary election, she had defeated Rick Easton of Wessington Springs by just one vote, 22-21.[4]
