Lisa Posthumus Lyons

Lisa Posthumus Lyons
Clerk and Register of Deeds of Kent County
Incumbent
Assumed office January 1, 2017
Preceded by	Mary Hollinrake
Member of the Michigan House of Representatives from the 86th district
In office January 1, 2011 – December 31, 2016
Preceded by	Dave Hildenbrand
Succeeded by	Thomas Albert
Personal details
Born	Lisa Dawn Posthumus (1980-06-12) June 12, 1980 Alto, Michigan, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Brad Lyons ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	4
Parent	Dick Posthumus (father)
Relatives	Bryan Posthumus (brother)
Education	Michigan State University (BS)

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 / Register of Deeds.

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, 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.

Career

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 that were signed into law.

In 2012, after supporting a right-to-work law, Lisa Posthumus Lyons proposed an amendment exempting corrections officers. In response to accusations of conflict of interest regarding her husband's employment as a corrections officer at that time, she said that Democrats had 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, she said "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. She later clarified that the remarks were meant for lobbyists such as the teachers' union and not the teachers themselves.

Lyons was term-limited in 2016 after serving three terms.

Kent County Clerk / Register of Deeds

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. 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.

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. In response to mistrust in elections and the attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, Lyons has emphasized the accuracy of voting equipment.

Lieutenant governor candidate

Main article: 2018 Michigan gubernatorial election

On August 15, 2018, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette 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 and Garlin Gilchrist.

Personal life

In 2003, Lyons married her husband Brad Lyons, who is a deputy sheriff in Kent County. They have four children.

Electoral history

Michigan gubernatorial election, 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Gretchen Whitmer Garlin Gilchrist	2,256,791	53.34%	+6.48%
	Republican	Bill Schuette Lisa Posthumus Lyons	1,853,650	43.81%	−7.11%
	Libertarian	Bill Gelineau Angelique Chaiser Thomas	56,752	1.34%	+0.21%
	Constitution	Todd Schleiger Earl P. Lackie	24,701	0.58%	−0.03%
	Green	Jennifer V. Kurland Charin H. Davenport	28,857	0.68%	+0.21%
	Natural Law	Keith Butkovitch Raymond Warner	10,258	0.24%	−
Majority			403,141	9.53%	+5.47%
Turnout			4,231,009		34.04%
	Swing to Democratic from Republican		Swing

External links

• Official website
• Clerk/Register campaign website