Colonel William A. Phillips

Lisa Posthumus Lyons (born June 12, 1980) is an American politician from Alto, Michigan, and served three terms as a Republican member of the Michigan House of Representatives from District 86 (portions of Ionia and Kent Counties) from 2011 to 2016. She is currently the elected Kent County Clerk^[1] / Register of Deeds.^[2]

Lyons was named by the Grand Rapids Business Journal as one of The 50 Most Influential Women^[3] in West Michigan in 2018.

She is the daughter of Dick Posthumus, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Michigan from 1999 to 2003 and was the Republican nominee for governor in 2002.

Background

Lyons describes herself as the fourth generation to own their family's farm in Alto. She graduated from Lowell High School and from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural and Natural Resources Communications. Prior to elected office, Lyons was Director of Public Policy & Community Outreach for the Grand Rapids Association of Realtors.

Michigan House of Representatives

In the 2010 general election, Lyons beat Frank Hammond with 25,943 votes, to 10,996 for Hammond and 909 for Libertarian Robin VanLoon. She was subsequently re-elected in 2012 and 2014. During her tenure, she chaired the House standing committees on education and on ethics and elections, and authored 32 Public Acts^[4] that were signed into law. Lyons was term-limited in 2016 after serving three terms.

Kent County, Michigan

In the 2016 General Election, Lyons was elected to the combined office of Kent County Clerk / Register of Deeds with 158,341 votes to Democratic Party candidate Christopher Reader's 115,244 votes, and Libertarian candidate James Lewis' 16,017 votes. She began her four-year term of office in January 2017.

She was re-elected Clerk/Register in the 2020 General Election with 186,362 votes to Democratic Party candidate Devin Ortega-Ferguson's 149,803 votes. She is currently serving her second four-year term.

The Kent County Clerk's Office has three major functions:^[5] to manage County elections; to manage vital County records; and to process and maintain all Circuit Court files. In Kent County, the Clerk is also the Register of Deeds. The Clerk is also the Clerk of the Board of Commissioners, and statutorily serves on numerous County boards and commissions.

2018 Michigan Gubernatorial Campaign

On August 15, 2018, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced^[6] Lyons as his running mate for his gubernatorial campaign. Her nomination was confirmed by the Michigan Republican State Convention on August 25, 2018^[7] and she officially joined the Republican ticket as candidate for Lieutenant Governor of the State of Michigan. The pair lost the general election on November 6, 2018 to the Democratic ticket of Gretchen Whitmer and Garlin Gilchrist.

Controversies

• In 2012, after supporting a right-to-work law, Lisa Posthumus Lyons went on to propose an amendment exempting corrections officers. Her husband, Brad Lyons, was a corrections officer at that time.^[8] Her response to the alleged conflict of interest was that Democrats have suggested the same sort of legislation in the past, and that her constituency includes hundreds of corrections officers.^[9]
• In June 2013, during a school dissolution bill debate, Lisa Posthumus Lyons made the remark "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered" in response to the request that surrounding districts interview the teachers from the dissolving school.^[10][11] Many considered her remarks disproportionate to the request, and a former teacher of hers sent a letter condemning her use of the phrase.^[12] Her response to criticism was that her remarks were meant for lobbyists (the teachers' union) and not the teachers themselves.^[10]

Personal life

In 2003, Lyons married her husband Brad Lyons, who is a deputy sheriff in Kent County.^[13] Together, they have four children; Easton, Charlie, Gage, and Fisher.

Electoral history

References

External links

• Official website
• Clerk/Register campaign website