CINCINNATI — Charmaine McGuffey defeated her former boss, Jim Neil, to win another term as Hamilton County sheriff. Both candidates in the November race have held this position. Neil was first elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2016, but lost to McGuffey in the 2020 Democratic primary. She was victorious in November of that year.

Daniel launched a challenge this election cycle as a Republican but lost as McGuffey received 56% of the vote.

“We’re not going to go back to a time where citizens didn’t really know if they were going to be treated fairly if they came into contact with the justice system,” McGuffey told WCPO in October, before the election.

Ohio’s third-largest county by a majority vote appears to have given McGuffey a mandate.

“I work and I work for everyone in Hamilton County,” McGuffey said.

The sheriff told WCPO that in her second term, as in her first, she promises to improve public safety across the board. McGuffey said she wants to focus on mental health and continue her recruiting efforts.

Right now, she said, the sheriff’s office has 900 deputies. She wants to fill the 960 budgeted positions.

McGuffey also promised to maintain the department’s crime-fighting task forces, including a domestic violence task force and the sheriff’s office’s youth violence task force. All of this emphasizes integrity and transparency.

“We’re all going to follow the rules, and when people don’t follow the rules, those people will have a very fair and just accountability and I will communicate that,” McGuffey said. “There are so many people who come and sit at these tables — they’re Republicans, they’re independents, they’re Democrats. We all work together.

For the first time, McGuffey will work with another Democrat in the DA’s office. Connie Pillich is the Hamilton County’s first Democratic prosecutor in 92 years after defeating incumbent Melissa Powers.