[2] In 1896, Steele was elected to the Nebraska State Senate as a Republican and served there until 1903.

"[2] On May 1, 1901, after serving only four months as Governor of Nebraska, Charles H. Dietrich resigned from being governor as he had been elected by the Nebraska Legislature to fill the vacant U.S. Senate term of Monroe L. Hayward, who had died.

Although Steele is not listed in recent editions of the Nebraska Blue Book as having served as Lieutenant Governor,[3] multiple sources from the time indicate that after the elevation of Ezra P. Savage to Governor, Steele was considered the Acting Lieutenant Governor due to his position as president pro tempore of the Nebraska Senate based on a misinterpretation of Article V, Section 18, of the Nebraska Constitution.

Thus, in the 1915 Nebraska Blue Book and the 1918 Nebraska Blue Book, Steele is listed as having served as Lieutenant Governor, even replacing any mention of Ezra P. Savage's brief stint as Lieutenant Governor.

[7][8][9][10] However, by 1920, Steele was not being included in the list of lieutenant governors of Nebraska in the Nebraska Blue Book[11] though some later editions of the Blue Book specifically noted in the list of lieutenant governors that Steele was the president pro tempore of the Nebraska Senate during the time that the lieutenant governor's office was vacant.