Submitted

Christopher Lyon, the Trego County Attorney and Hays municipal prosecutor, has announced his candidacy for the Ellis County Attorney’s Office.

Lyon served as Assistant Ellis County Attorney from 2014 to 2018 and Trego County Attorney from 2017 to present. He is also the WaKeeney municipal prosecutor.

Lyon has been the Hays municipal prosecutor since 2016, a position appointed by the Hays city attorney. He is the past president of the Ellis County Bar Association and currently also works as the staff attorney for the Kansas Sentencing Commission.

He served as an adviser to the Ellis County Drug Enforcement Unit from 2014 to 2018 and is certified by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance for Adult Drug Court Planning. He has been a special prosecutor in Rush, Sheridan and Ness counties.

Lyon received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Dallas. He then served in the U.S. Army, where he was stationed at Fort Riley, and served two tours of duty in Iraq, the first in Baghdad (2008-09) with the First Infantry Division, and the second in Mosul (2010-11), with the First Cavalry Division.

He received numerous medals and accolades, including two Army Commendation Medals and five Army Achievement Medals. Using the G.I. Bill, Lyon left the Army in 2011 to study law at Washburn University in Topeka.

Lyon and his wife, Emily, are members of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hays, and have four children: Peter, Helen, Esther and Thomas. He is also a member of the Kiwanis Club, the VFW and the Knights of Columbus.

Current Ellis County Attorney Tom Drees, a Democrat, was first elected to the position in 1997.