Steve Yates's Experience in National Security Couldn't Prepare Him for His Daughter's Tragic Death

While Steve Yates might not carry a lot of name recognition outside of politics, his work has almost certainly touched our lives in some form or another. His focus has primarily been in national security and he has experience in grassroots, state-wide, national, and international political operations, as well as geopolitical risk and government policy. Steve has worked in the public and private sectors and is no stranger to the White House. He has also run for government office himself.

While Steve's professional life has taken him in numerous directions, his personal life has seen a few road bumps. Steve and his wife adopted two children, one of whom passed away in 2023 at the age of 25. Christina Yates struggled for years with addiction, which eventually took her life. What happened to Steve Yates's daughter? Here's what we know.

In November 2023, Steve appeared on The Addiction Podcast - Point of No Return, exactly one month after his daughter died. Steve was raised in a large family and never imagined he would one day be adopting two children of his own, but he and his wife eventually found Christina and John via the same adoption agency. Both were newborns when they were adopted, and both were mixed race.

Steve and his wife were told that Christina's birth mother was in a correctional facility and suffered from addiction. Christina was exposed to alcohol and cocaine in the womb, which, according to Steve, affected his daughter's development both physiologically and mentally. When asked by the podcast how Christina found drugs, Steve said he may never know exactly how it happened, but he noted her propensity to addiction based on her congenital issues.

Once Christina reached middle school, Steve said she started experimenting with drugs. By the time Christina was in high school Steve said he could tell his daughter was doing drugs that were far stronger than marijuana. Following a court-ordered stint in a diversion program, Christina left home at the age of 18 and moved to Colorado with a man she eventually married. This was in 2016.

At the end of 2022, Steve took Christina and her dog out of Colorado and moved them home to Florida. "It was here that she went through detox and went through a rehabilitation program," he explained. Christina was sober for a little while but "wrestled all the way through it," said Steve. He believes she was never fully OK apart from one "beautiful month" early in 2023 when Christina was "fully present."

During the brief period of sobriety, Christina tried finding a job but found that her mental capabilities were comprised by years of drug use. At least that's what Steve believes happened. After getting rejected multiple times, Christina told her father that at least when she was homeless and using drugs, she had a way to escape the pain. Christina told her father that being sober and being told she was a loser was far more painful. "It really broke my heart," he said.

This led Christina to a really dark place, which culminated in a relapse in March 2023. That summer, Hurricane Idalia hit Florida pretty hard while Steve was out of town for work. Steve asked Christina to look after her brother, but he noticed she was in and out and couldn't be relied upon, which upset Steve. This was the beginning of the end as Christina stopped coming home. She died of a fentanyl overdose in October 2023.