Governor Polis has appointed Jason T. Kelly to fill a vacancy on the Conejos County Court in the Twelfth Judicial District. This judgeship is created by the appointment of the Honorable Kimberly Cortez to the district court and is effective immediately.

“I am honored and privileged to serve the Conejos County community,” Kelly said in a statement to the Valley Courier. “I am grateful for everyone that has supported me and will do my best to continue the high standards that have been set by previous and current judges of the 12th judicial district.”

Kelly has been the Alamosa County Attorney since March of 2008. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 1998, he was awarded his juris doctorate from the William H. Bowen School of Law in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2004. In 2006, Kelly opened a private practice in Colorado ultimately taking a full-time position with Alamosa County in 2011.

In his role as county attorney, he has represented all elected county officials and departments in multiple areas of the law, including employment, personal injury and disability, governmental immunity, contracts, domestic, land use, and general county law.

Kelly is a member of the Colorado Bar Association and the San Luis Valley Bar Association where he has served as Secretary/Treasurer, Vice-President and President.  For more than a decade, he has also been an active board member of the SLV Pro Bono Project and was recently named to the Colorado Diverse Attorney Community Circle (CODACC).

He serves on the Unmanned Aircraft Operation Advisory Board for Trinidad State Junior College and is an adjunct professor at Adams State University. 

After being selected from thousands of applicants, Kelly also served as one of twelve commissioners on the Independent Colorado Redistricting Commission, which was created with the passage of Amendment Y  by Colorado voters in the 2018 election and was charged with drawing Colorado’s congressional and state legislative districts in 2022.

Jason Kelly said he plans to continue as the Alamosa County attorney.