In the running for Gray County Sheriff is current sheriff JC Skinner who was appointed to fill the role after Michael “Big Mac” Ryan’s untimely passing.
Born and raised in Texas, JC comes from a long line of law enforcement, his grandfather serving as deputy and chief deputy for several years, his father serving as a police officer for 30 years and is currently a lieutenant at the Gray County Sheriff’s Office, and his uncle currently serving as a detective in Wichita, Kansas.
JC never considered entering the field as a familial obligation, but as a fascination that developed into a passion during his younger years.
“My dad was a K-9 handler for years, and even while I was in school, we trained dogs and sold them to agencies in Vernon, TX where we lived. Whenever I graduated high school, I went to work at a TYC juvenile bootcamp and worked there for a while until I moved to McLean around 2006. I decided to go to the academy, graduated from that and went to work for Iowa Park Police Department. We came up here during Christmas in 2010 and I went up to the office to talk to Don who I knew from my grandpa. As I was driving back to McLean, he called me and said if I wanted a job, to let him know when I wanted to start. I went back to Iowa Park and put in my two weeks notice, worked that, and came back here and have been here ever since.”
For the last 16 years, JC would work his way up through the office, starting as a patrol officer and K-9 handler, to a patrol sargeant, then to chief deputy and most recently to sheriff. He admits that his time as chief deputy really helped him grasp the administrative responsibilities within the office, and would essentially prepare him for the role of sheriff.
“There are a lot of duties of the sheriff, and probably the biggest responsibility that people don’t actually think of is the jail. The sheriff ultimately is in charge of everything with the jail-any compliance issues, staffing issues, it all comes back and falls on the sheriff. Then you do have your patrol, commissioners court, courthouse security, budgets. There are a lot of administrative things like civil processes, and then we do all the transports for inmates. We have to pick people up in California, Pennsylvania, New York-anybody who gets arrested in Gray County and fails to show up in court and has warrants issued, we have to go pick them up from anywhere in the country. There is a lot of state reporting stuff too-anything you can really think of, the sheriff is responsible for.”
“Whenever I went into that office, I didn’t know much about the administrative side of it. I knew the patrol side and training people and things like that, but then the state reporting and monthly reporting and everything that that job actually does-I learned a lot about statistics and numbers that I had no idea was even going to be a factor in that job at the time.”
But it wasn’t just the gained experience as chief deputy that prepared him for the role as sheriff-Big Mac also played a major part in ensuring that JC would succeed.
“Everything he taught me, helped me with, and got me through really prepared me for this. Even with the budget and things like that-he pretty much said, here you go, you do the budget, bring it to me, and I’ll look over it, you present it, and you make sure we stay in it. That was a big responsibility and was very beneficial to me for this part of the job.”
With the culture surrounding law enforcement constantly changing, it’s not uncommon for current employees of either a sheriff’s office or a police department to second guess their chosen career. For many departments, the door is constantly revolving, and it’s up to those in charge to ensure the safety and security of their employees.
“People who get into the deputy side of it, they go through an academy and they’re more prepared for what they’re going to do. But for the jail, people come in and get their initial training for it, but when they actually get up there with 75 inmates, it’s not at all what they were expecting. So you see folks leave a lot from the jail.”
“What we try to do, is like during our field training and we have a brand new person, we try to expose them to as much as we can. When they start, they are more of an observer and we’re not going to let them make a mistake or let them get into a situation where they get overwhelmed. We send our guys to a lot of advanced classes. Pretty much every deputy here has been through a SWAT school of some sort, and not necessarily because we run a SWAT team or anything, but because it gives them more confidence in their job and their abilities. And it’s the same thing with the jail, but there’s not as many programs for them. But since I got appointed, something we’ve done for the jail is we require more training for the jailers, so they have to attend a jail school for a year to become a certified jailer. For the people that have been here, we’ve actually gotten additional licenses for them and this all comes from time of service and training hours.”
When asked if he had any changes he would like to see made during his tenure if elected, JC simply said there wasn’t much he would change other than a stronger structure, and praised everyone who works for the office.
“We have a great group of people, but there are times when I’ve seen a little bit of lack in structure over the years, but we were in a weird spot with our sheriff being sick for so long. So I want to clean some of that stuff up and get things more organized. At some point, I would like to add an additional school resource officer just because everything is spread out. But really I think our guys do a great job getting out in the county, taking their calls, and they’re proactive. Our investigator is great with keeping a close eye on the sex offender stuff, so we have a really great group.”
While opportunities have been thrown his way, JC has dug his heels into serving Gray County, and he can’t see himself doing anything else anywhere else.
“I’ve learned a lot and this is what I love doing-I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. With all that I’ve learned, I feel like I’m in a good position to help the county and continue what we’ve been doing.”
Early voting will be February 17th through February 27th at the Gray County Courthouse, 205 N. Russell in Room 104. Times are:
Tuesday, February 17th through Friday, February 20th-8 AM to 5 PM
Saturday, February 21: 7 AM to 7 PM
Sunday, February 22: 12 PM to 6 PM
Monday, February 23 through Friday, February 27: 7 AM to 7 PM.
Election Day, March 3: 7 AM to 7 PM
Last day to register is February 2, 2026. Mail ballots will begin going out on January 17, 2026. Last day to request ballot by mail is February 20, 2026.
