Lancaster County commissioner Josh Parsons has made it official. He is a candidate for the Republican nomination to replace Ryan Aument in the state Senate from the 36th District.

Parsons has led the three-member Lanco board as president for the past eight years. An Army veteran, he served in the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor prior to being elected Clerk of Courts.

“I look forward to sharing my vision for Pennsylvania with voters in the 36th District,” he said in a prepared statement. “Over the past eight years we have created real, conservative results for the people of Lancaster County. We defended freedom, helped secure our elections, defended our values, kept taxes low, and kept citizens safe. We made Lancaster County an even more amazing place to live, work and raise a family. Together we can deliver those same results in Harrisburg.”

A graduate of the University of Delaware with a J.D. from Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Parsons and his wife, Christina, live in Sadsbury Township with their three children.

Aument will resign his seat to become state director for U.S. Senator-elect Dave McCormick. He has served the citizens of Lancaster County as a state representative and state senator since 2011.

The 36th state senatorial district comprises the townships of Conoy, Earl, East Donegal, East Hempfield, Elizabeth, Ephrata, Manheim, Mount Joy, Penn, Rapho, Warwick, West Donegal, West Earl and West Hempfield and the boroughs of Akron, Columbia, East Petersburg, Elizabethtown, Ephrata, Lititz, Manheim, Marietta, Mount Joy, Mountville and New Holland in Lancaster County.