Who will replace Ed Troyer as Pierce County sheriff? Here are early results from Tuesday
Keith Swank is in the lead in Tuesday’s general election for Pierce County sheriff, early results show. As of Wednesday’s tally, the retired Seattle Police Department captain had so far captured 2.64 percent more votes than his opponent, Patti Jackson.
The race is the only open election for sheriff in the state, and the outcome could mean big changes among the law enforcement agency’s top brass. Voters will either elect Jackson, a department insider with the support of current Sheriff Ed Troyer and other local government officials, or Swank, who has never worked in the department but has had a long career in policing.
More ballots still needed to be tallied as the week progressed, but Swank as of Wednesday had captured 51.14 percent of votes. Jackson has captured 48..50 percent. Write-ins made up 0.35 percent of votes. The race is still too close to call.
Swank, 56, worked for the Seattle Police Department for 33 years before he retired in June last year. He first came to Pierce County in 1987 after enlisting in the U.S. Army, and he has lived in the Puyallup area since 2002. In Seattle he worked as a street cop, oversaw a 911 center as a sergeant and commanded special units as a captain such as the SWAT team and bomb squad.
Jackson, 60, has worked for the Sheriff’s Department since 1989, primarily in corrections, where she ran the Pierce County Jail as chief for eight years until January when she became chief of patrol. If elected, she would be the first woman to be sheriff in the county.
Fundraising for Swank and Jackson has primarily come from individuals. Swank has raised $113,992.67, according to the Public Disclosure Commission, and Jackson has brought in $129,757.
Swank was at an election-watch party with his wife Tuesday evening put on by the Pierce County Republican Party at the Tacoma Country & Golf Club. In a phone call with The News Tribune, he was pleased but cautious about the early results.
“You never know what’s going to happen between now and the next few days,” Swank said.
He said he’d been busy fielding interviews and keeping up on the sheriff’s race. Swank described the energy of the party as mixed with excitement and disappointments. He planned to stay a while to be with volunteers who worked on his campaign, but he said his plans for the night were to go home and get some sleep.
“I think it’s still a serious race,” Swank said. “You know, a lot can change in that amount of time. So I’m just hoping that the people that turned their ballots in today, I heard there’s a lot of people turning ballots in today, and I hope that those people are Keith Swank supporters.”
Asked for his thoughts on the presidential election, Swank said he had stayed away from watching results.
Jackson was keeping an eye on her election Tuesday evening with supporters at the West End Pub in Tacoma. She projected confidence in a brief phone call with The News Tribune, despite early results leaning toward Swank. She said she believed that as more ballots are counted this week, she would narrow the gap as she did in the August primary.
“We saw early results, and we are fired up,” Jackson said, as the noise of a crowded bar hummed in the background. “There’s been the first count that’s there. We are following our model. We were very convinced that we’re moving, you know, the night’s young.”
In the August primary, Jackson initially trailed Swank by 2.37 percent of the vote, but she gained votes in later tallies, eventually putting her just 0.62 percent behind Swank.
Jackson said she was proud of the direction she was moving. Her plan for the rest of the night was to enjoy the company of those around her and revel in the positive energy she said was surrounding her. Asked if people had another election on their minds rather than the race for sheriff, Jackson described feeling the excitement of multiple elections.
“This is a time where, I mean, the nation is deciding things,” Jackson said. “I think that you hear the buzz of, you know, a few things, but mostly we’re very excited about the sheriff’s race.”
Both candidates have run campaigns that promise “tough on crime” approaches to enforcing the law. Swank has put public safety issues in more dramatic terms, describing crime as “out of control” — despite declines in violent offenses in the county last year — and calling out young offenders’ capacity for evil. Jackson has asked voters if they’re tired of having armed guards at Target or having detergent locked behind glass at the store.
Swank has emphasized his tactical experiences policing in Seattle such as making arrests, being shot at and defusing tense or violent situations. At the same time he’s called out Jackson’s lack of patrol experience as a reason he believes she’s not up to the task of leading the department, and he’s pointed to a March vote of no confidence from the Pierce County Corrections Guild as evidence of low morale.
Swank has also drawn criticism for his use of social media, where he posted an unfounded claim in March 2023 blaming former U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi for “coordinating” the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s also mocked transgender people on his X account and suggested that members of Gen Z shouldn’t be allowed to vote if they live with their parents.
Swank has said he wants to be a non-partisan sheriff, but he has run for U.S. Congress as a Republican four times. Jackson has never held public office.
In her bid for sheriff, Jackson has leaned on her experience operating the jail, which she has likened to running a small city. She’s earned a wide breadth of political support from Republicans and Democrats that has helped her argue that she knows how to build and maintain relationships, a skill that would help align her with the needs of Pierce County’s communities while she works toward a goal of rebuilding trust in law enforcement.
Jackson faced challenges in the Corrections Bureau, including an ongoing staffing crisis that has limited jail bookings and persisting complaints from the Corrections Guild over her leadership. Neither of the unions that represent the patrol and corrections deputies of the Sheriff’s Department made an endorsement in this election.
The candidates have alluded to changes among the Sheriff’s Department’s command staff, which is made up of an undersheriff and five chiefs leading administrative services, patrol, corrections and investigations, as well as a chief of staff who oversees contracts, grants and government relations.
Jackson has said both Undersheriff Brent Bomkamp and Chief of Administrative Services Nick Hausner would retire sometime after the election, but she hasn’t announced replacements. Swank has said he would appoint Sheriff’s Department Lt. Cynthia Fajardo as his undersheriff if he is elected, and together they would identify other leaders. Fajardo was a candidate in this year’s election, but she did not advance past the August primary.
Whoever is elected, they will provide law enforcement services to the hundreds of thousands of people who live in unincorporated areas of the county, Pierce Transit and cities that contract for police services, Edgewood and University Place. He or she will run the jail and wield a budget of more than $377 million.
The sheriff is a nonpartisan position and is elected for a four-year term, limited to three consecutive terms.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 8:17 PM.
