Several Douglas County elected officials — including two who will expand the county commission to five members and a new district attorney — took their oaths of office during a ceremony Monday morning at the historic county courthouse.
Commissioners Shannon Reid, of Lawrence, and Karen Willey, of Willow Springs Township, representing the county’s Districts 2 and 3, respectively, were sworn into their second terms. Reid was first elected in 2020 before being reelected in November; Willey was appointed in August 2022 to fill the seat vacated by Shannon Portillo.
Joining Democrats Reid, Willey and incumbent District 1 Commissioner Patrick Kelly will be Democrats Gene Dorsey and Erica Anderson, representing the new Districts 4 and 5, respectively.

Douglas County voters in 2022 voted by a margin of roughly 61% to 39% to expand the commission from three to five seats. Many rural residents hoped the expansion would mean more rural representation on the commission.
Dorsey, of Lawrence, and Anderson, of unincorporated Douglas County, will be the first two to hold the new seats.
Dakota Loomis, a Lawrence Democrat, was sworn in Monday as district attorney.
Loomis had ousted previous DA Suzanne Valdez in a three-way Democratic primary in August, taking 63.3% of the vote, and won about 64% of the vote in the general election.
Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister, of Baldwin City, and Register of Deeds Kent Brown, of Lawrence, both won their Democratic primary elections in 2020 and ran unopposed in the general election that year. Both ran unopposed in 2024 and were sworn in for their second terms Monday.
Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew, also a Democrat, was first elected in 2004. He has not faced an opponent since 2004, and he ran in 2024 for his sixth term. He was sworn in again Monday.
Douglas County Treasurer Adam Rains, of Lawrence, also won his Democratic primary in August 2020 and has run unopposed since. The term for treasurer begins in October, so Rains and his deputy, Jessica VanMeter, will be sworn in then.
Post updated to add more photos at 1:17 p.m. Monday, Jan. 13























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Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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