Lisa Posthumus Lyons (born June 12, 1980) is an American politician from

Alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, and served three terms as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

member of the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 ...

from District 86 (portions of

Ionia Ionia () was an ancient region on the western coast of Anatolia, to the south of present-day Izmir. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionian ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Counties) from 2011 - 2016. In 2016 she was elected Kent County Clerk / Register of Deeds. The only woman to hold countywide office in Kent County, Michigan, Lyons was named by the Grand Rapids Business Journal as one of The 50 Most Influential Women in West Michigan in 2018. She is the daughter of

Dick Posthumus Richard Posthumus (; born July 19, 1950) is an American businessman, and politician. He was the 61st Lieutenant Governor of Michigan and majority leader of the Michigan Senate. In 2002, he was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Governor of M ...

, who served as

Lieutenant Governor of Michigan The lieutenant governor of Michigan is the second-ranking official in U.S. state of Michigan, behind the governor. The current lieutenant governor by default is Garlin Gilchrist, a Democrat, who has held the office since January 1, 2019. Proce ...

from 1999 to 2003 and was the Republican nominee for

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Background

Posthumus Lyons describes herself as the fourth generation to own their family's

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

in Alto. She graduated from Lowell High School and from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

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 Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

Association of

Realtors The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is an American trade association for those who work in the real estate industry. It has over 1.4 million members, making it one of the biggest trade associations in the USA including NAR's institutes, so ...

. Lyons and her husband Brad, who is a

deputy sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

in Kent County, have four children: Easton, Charlie, Gage, and Fisher.

Michigan House of Representatives

In the 2010 general election, Posthumus Lyons beat Frank Hammond with 25,943 votes, to 10,996 for Hammond and 909 for

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

Robin VanLoon. She was subsequently re-elected in 2012 and 2014. During her tenure, she chaired the House

standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

s on education and on

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

and

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

, and authored 32 Public Acts that were signed into law. Posthumus 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 Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

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. The Kent County Clerk's Office has three major functions: 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 The Attorney General of the State of Michigan is the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. state of Michigan. The officeholder is elected statewide in the November general election alongside the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, me ...

Bill Schuette William Duncan Schuette ( ; born October 13, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd attorney general of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Senate in 1990 and for Governor of Mich ...

announced Lyons as his running mate for his gubernatorial campaign. Her nomination was confirmed by the Michigan Republican State Convention on August 25, 2018 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 Gretchen Esther Whitmer (born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2001 to 2006 a ...

and

Garlin Gilchrist Garlin Gilchrist II (born September 25, 1982) is an American politician and activist serving as the 64th lieutenant governor of Michigan since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Early life and education Gilchrist was born in Detroit. ...

Controversies

* In 2012, after supporting a

right-to-work law In the context of labor law in the United States, the term "right-to-work laws" refers to state laws that prohibit union security agreements between employers and labor unions which require employees who are not union members to contribute to ...

, Lisa Posthumus Lyons went on to propose an amendment exempting corrections officers. Her husband, Brad Lyons, was a corrections officer at that time. 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. * 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. Many considered her remarks disproportionate to the request, and a former teacher of hers sent a letter condemning her use of the phrase. Her response to criticism was that her remarks were meant for lobbyists (the teachers' union) and not the teachers themselves.

Electoral history

References

External links

*
Clerk/Register campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Lisa 1980 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians American people of Dutch descent County officials in Michigan Living people Republican Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives Michigan State University alumni People from Kent County, Michigan Women state legislators in Michigan