BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Javier Salazar has won the race for Bexar County Sheriff over incumbent Susan Pamerleau.
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The race went down to the wire with only a few thousand votes separating the candidates.
Pamerleau held a slight lead throughout the night, but Salazar pulled ahead just before 11 p.m.
Despite a slow start, Salazar and his campaign supporters said they were very encouraged by what they saw throughout the night.
Salazar updated his supporters around 9 p.m. and said they had closed the gap from 11,000 to 7,000 votes. As of midnight Salazar was up by a little less than 4,000 votes with 99 percent of the precincts reporting.
He declared victory to his supporters over Pamerleau around midnight as some of the final results were tallied.
"The voters have spoken loud and clear. It is with great pleasure that I humbly accept my new role as your next Bexar County Sheriff," Salazar said.
The Salazar campaign said they focused a lot of their efforts in the swing part of Bexar County which runs along Loop 1604 from Highway 151 to Highway 281.
"We are going to work with our community and outside law enforcement agencies to make Bexar County a safer place to live, work and play," Salazar said.
Pamerleau was elected sheriff in 2012. Earlier Tuesday, she discussed her long list of accomplishments since she was elected in 2012.
Those accomplishments included the building of substations for the sheriff’s office and outfitting deputies with body cameras.
Pamerleau acknowledged earlier in the night it was going to be a close race.
"I will to you every one of us is proud with how far this agency has come. That will put Bexar County and the Bexar County Sheriff's Office so much farther ahead in terms of providing public safety for this community," Pamerleau said.