---
title: "VoteR Connect | Keeping Experience on the Bench: Judge Lisa McGowan on Family Court, Kids, and a Third Term"
url: https://voterpac.org/articles/keeping-experience-on-the-bench-judge-lisa-mcgowan
description: "Judge Lisa McGowan has presided over Lucas County's Domestic Relations Court since 2015. She sat down with the VoteR podcast to talk streamlined cases, protecting children, and why specialized experience matters."
lang: en
---

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# Keeping Experience on the Bench: Judge Lisa McGowan on Family Court, Kids, and a Third Term

Podcast

Toby Miller

Published September 15, 2026

Judge Lisa McGowan has presided over Lucas County's Domestic Relations Court since 2015. She sat down with the VoteR podcast to talk streamlined cases, protecting children, and why specialized experience matters.

Domestic Relations Court handles the hardest moments in family life — divorce, custody, domestic violence. Judge Lisa McGowan has presided over Lucas County's Domestic Relations Court since 2015, after a career that runs from assistant public defender to in-house counsel to fourteen years inside the court itself as law clerk and magistrate. She sat down with the VoteR podcast to talk about streamlining cases so families stop burning time and money in litigation, restructuring the court as administrative judge to live within the county budget, how children's voices are protected in custody fights, and why specialized experience matters in a specialized court. A lifelong Republican, she's asking Lucas County for a third term this November. Watch the highlights below, and follow her campaign on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/McGowanforJudgeCmte/).

**Watch the shorts** (a new clip goes live on each date):

- Sep 15: Why I Chose Family Law (https://youtube.com/shorts/R6t7niilyUQ)
- Sep 15: You Don't Learn Brain Surgery on the Job (https://youtube.com/shorts/sSzMURdOq-0)
- Sep 16: Restructuring the Court to Serve You (https://youtube.com/shorts/RAG5hNrTjyw)
- Sep 16: Why I'm Asking for a Third Term (https://youtube.com/shorts/2zF7vKp5rKw)
- Sep 17: From Law Clerk to the Bench (https://youtube.com/shorts/bQGgB76W7nA)
- Sep 17: Compassion for Families in Crisis (https://youtube.com/shorts/0i-f6YtWk3o)
- Sep 18: Stop Wasting Families' Time (https://youtube.com/shorts/S9k1bItQrnk)
- Sep 18: How the Court Protects Children (https://youtube.com/shorts/1ZOWUXtL5gU)
- Sep 19: A Safety Plan in Place (https://youtube.com/shorts/5p57h76-nRY)

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