(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
KENOSHA, Wis. — Kenosha County Sheriff David Zoerner won a closely watched three-way Republican primary Tuesday night, defeating Captains Tony Gonzalez and James Beller and securing the Republican nomination for another term as sheriff.
Zoerner won the race fair and square, receiving more votes than either of his challengers. But the results came with an interesting distinction: the incumbent sheriff failed to capture a majority of the Republican vote.
Zoerner received 7,045 votes, or 49.77%, according to unofficial election results. Gonzalez finished second with 4,409 votes, or 31.15%, while Beller received 2,692 votes, or 19.02%. Eight write-in votes accounted for the remainder.
Combined, Gonzalez and Beller received 7,101 votes — 56 more than Zoerner. In other words, slightly more than half of the Republican voters who cast a ballot in the sheriff’s race chose one of Zoerner’s two challengers.
Wisconsin does not require a candidate in this type of partisan primary to receive a majority of the vote. The candidate receiving the most votes wins, meaning Zoerner’s 49.77% was enough to secure the Republican nomination.
In many states and jurisdictions that use majority-runoff elections, however, a candidate receiving less than 50% would advance to a runoff against the second-place finisher. Under such a system, Tuesday’s results would have produced a one-on-one contest.
Throughout the campaign, however, the three-way nature of the contest raised questions about whether two challengers competing for voters seeking a change could split that vote.
Tuesday’s results showed just how close that divide ultimately was.
The race was among the most closely watched local contests of Tuesday’s primary and marked a dramatic change from the position Zoerner occupied four years ago.
In 2022, Zoerner was seeking an open seat. Then a sergeant with the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department, Zoerner won the Republican primary before cruising to victory in the November general election. He took the oath of office as Kenosha County Sheriff in January 2023.
Four years later, Zoerner entered the primary as the incumbent and faced challenges from two experienced law enforcement officers.
Despite falling just short of a majority, Zoerner emerged with the most votes and will move forward as the Republican nominee.
Following his victory Tuesday night, Zoerner provided KCE with a statement thanking voters as well as his two opponents.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the voters of Kenosha County for placing their trust in me once again. I also want to thank Captains Gonzalez and Beller for stepping forward and putting themselves before the voters. Running for public office takes a tremendous commitment, and both have dedicated their careers to serving and protecting our community.
“Now that the primary is behind us, I look forward to bringing people together and continuing the work of keeping Kenosha County a safe place to live, work, and raise a family. I’m honored by tonight’s support and ready to keep earning the trust of the people we serve.”
Beller addressed a gathering of close to 80 supporters Tuesday night and conceded the race.
“It looks like most of the ballots are in and we’re coming up short of a victory tonight.
“Here’s the deal, none of this would have happened without you.
“You showed up and voted.
You showed up and knocked on doors.
You showed up and supported us from the beginning.
From every conversation, story, and interaction, this has been such a rewarding experience.
“Thank you for believing in Michelle and I. Thank you for believing in our vision for a safer Kenosha County.
“Just a few minutes ago I called Sheriff Zoerner and wished him the best. It was a hard fought campaign and at the end of the day, the voters have spoken.
“Godspeed everyone. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Gonzalez did not respond to KCE’s request for comment Tuesday night. He did, however, publish a statement on Facebook thanking those who supported his campaign.
“I’d like to thank everyone who poured their hearts into this campaign.
“While the results aren’t what we hoped for, I couldn’t be prouder of what we built together. We ran a clean, honest race from start to finish, and we did it the right way.
“To my incredible team, volunteers, colleagues, and supporters, keep your heads held high! I am deeply grateful to have stood side-by-side with you.”
Although the Republican primary is over, Zoerner may still have an opponent in November.
Gary Roberts, the City of Kenosha’s Director of Inspections and a former police officer from decades ago, initially described himself as an independent candidate for sheriff. Roberts failed to collect the 500 valid signatures necessary to secure a place on the November ballot as an independent candidate.
Roberts subsequently changed course and mounted a write-in campaign for the Democratic nomination in Tuesday’s partisan primary.
No candidate’s name appeared on the Democratic sheriff ballot. Instead, unofficial results show 2,242 write-in votes cast in the Democratic sheriff contest. If the canvass confirms Roberts received enough of those write-in votes to qualify for the Democratic nomination, he would appear on the November ballot against Zoerner.
That would give voters another opportunity to weigh in on the sheriff’s race after a Republican primary in which the incumbent prevailed, but did so without winning a majority.
Tuesday night’s numbers provide an unusual ending to the three-way Republican contest. Zoerner won the primary and earned the Republican nomination, but Gonzalez and Beller together received slightly more votes than the incumbent.
That does not mean either challenger necessarily would have defeated Zoerner in a two-person race. Voters are not interchangeable, and there is no way to determine where Beller’s supporters would have gone if faced with only Zoerner and Gonzalez.
But the less-than-50% result illustrates how closely divided Republican voters were in one of Kenosha County’s most closely watched races.
Under Wisconsin’s election system, there will be no Republican runoff. Zoerner won the plurality and, with it, the Republican nomination.
Now, barring an unexpected outcome in the canvass of Democratic write-in votes, Zoerner’s next contest will come in November against Roberts.
32 Responses
Predictable. Beller and Gonzalez are both good people and qualified but they were going to split the vote. We need to know more about Roberts.
I voted for Beller. There seems to be internal problems in the sheriff’s office and maybe an outside view is necessary.
Nobody cares who you voted for, I promise.
We can’t beat the Democrats if we keep beating ourselves !
As difficult as it is for Sandy, she not only lost to to Ellen but it was by a wide margin.
Sure Ellen had better name recognition district wide but I firmly believe Sandy was the better candidate.
That said we need to look at the failure to oust David Zoerner. In a two way race he would be gone.
Do I blame both challengers for not coming to an early agreement and deciding for one of them to drop out before hand ? Yes and No. Because I believe both of them were solid candidates and deserved to have their opportunity to win that office.
But …….
The local Republican Party needs to get a clue and understand that that was exactly what needed to happen to oust Zoerner !
We can’t let a failure like David Zoerner be able to carry the GOP Flag when clearly he is not one of us !
To come back to Sandy’s loss, we need to rethink the local GOP party leadership and realize we need to get more focused on who we recruit or allow to be our candidates. Read Zoerner 2022.
This is not about backroom deals limiting the choices for the people to have to decide but rather reading the tea leaves and realizing that certain people don’t deserve the support and others do. Again read Zoerner.
The Democrats are famous for picking their candidates with “out in the open” backroom deals and it works for them. We need to do the same.
Tom Tiffany seems to have been picked this way after the failure of 8 years ago when Tim Michels and Tommy Thompson made a deal. Rebecca Kleefisch wasn’t part of that deal and then fought it out with Tim Michels and then Tim failed to thrive and turned out to be weak in his campaigning against Evers. Was it because he spent more time than necessary campaigning in the Primary ?
I fully believe Rebecca would have won against Evers. Michels and Tommy Thompson made that “back room deal” but it wasn’t enough. They should have included Kleefisch. Or she declined. I don’t know.
We now are stuck for the next 4 years with a failure of a sheriff when we could have had someone else. When you consider the likes of Samantha Kerkman endorsing David Zoerner we get what we get.
The local GOP is weak and seemingly unwilling to think things through.
Is that Sandy’s fault ? It almost has to be.
Is that fair to blame her solely ? No.
But if not her then who ?
Maybe we all need to look in the mirror.
We all were warned that this primary was actually a general election for sheriff. Yet look at the turn out. How many people that call themselves conservatives stayed home ?
I vote in every election every time.
As conservatives we like to stay above the fray and think that if we just play fair we will eventually overcome all the bad in the world. Sadly that ship sailed years ago and the Republican Party as a whole needs to get our hands dirty to not just win against the Democrats but also against RINOs like David Zoerner and Samantha Kerkman before we end up being governed by the likes of Francesca Hong.
Yes we dodged that bullet but look at what they did on their side to make that happen.
It wasn’t pretty but it worked.
Beller and Gonzalez need to have lunch with Sandy and decide if going forward they are going to join up and become part of the solution in our local Grand Old Party because of what happened to them or are they just going to go away and let the carnage continue long into the future. Consider it two police detectives interviewing an expert witness in the death of three political campaigns. These three can take their losses and what they learned from them better than anyone else locally and help change the party as a whole locally.
The way the game is played has changed.
The electorate is less educated than ever in our lifetimes. We need to figure out how to either better tell our vision to them or pick and focus and support better candidates so that we don’t give them too many choices.
Politics isn’t Win, Place and Show.
It’s just Win Period
I voted for Sandy and Tony.
Make no mistake: Rebecca falls into the RINO category alongside Zoerner and Kerkman.
The sheriff’s yard signs were everywhere esp in Kenosha county
How many of those signs voted?
Sheriffs enjoy jumping to conclusions and running from accountability, so it’s no surprise the fattest of all the candidates won.
LMFAO, you’re gonna spike the cortisol levels of all the red-faced hotdog neck hogs inhabiting Kenosha.
That “to serve and protect” slogan floating around out there is a myth.
The Dems are the only ones voting.
Well, crap-i. can’t stand this blowhard
Maybe you should ask Zoerner why he had newly placed political signs on public land leading up to voting locations.
Oh- this is an easy one. Because Zoerner is Kerkman’s guy, and no one can cross Kerkman or they will “get resigned.”
Maybe ask Belsky why she only cares about which directors have truly been fired— why the massive turnover in senior leadership isn’t an issue as long as Kerkman isn’t FIRING them. Kerkman is smarter than that. She’s not going to “fire” because that would make her look bad.
A Zoerner win proves Sandy’s ineffectiveness with the county party. She hasn’t changed people’s mindsets or worked to unify. One could almost argue that Erin Decker has been more effective turning things toward the RINO candidates, AEB Kerkman running unopposed and now Zoerner’s win.
Zoerner’s win was all but inevitable with two challengers splitting the vote. That was a gift to him.
And shows a failure to unite the party. An organized, effective, united party doesn’t split the vote between a bad candidate and two relatively solid candidates. They unite to beat the bad candidate. Either one of those candidates could have beaten Zoerner— together, they sealed the W for him.
Thank goodness for outside influences helping republicans generally, in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Republican apparatus is and has been ineffective and an absolute joke –
especially those at the top.
Exactly, also, many people skipped the Repub side of the ballot to vote for Hong.
Nothing changes. Voting means nothing
Rigged since the first election.
Yes…Milwaukee has normalized incompetence in the handling of votes.
There does “seem” to always be a mistake containing just enough phunny votes for the win.
Zoerner is a rino. This outcome is gonna hurt Kenoshans. The amount of people that showed up to vote is sad but not surprising. But I gurantee theyll be a lot more people bitching and complaing about Zoerner down the road that didn’t bother to vote.
Why in the hell, did hundreds or even thousands of republicans crossover in this partisan primary to vote for a potential democratic governor they’ll never vote for in the general, to only throw away their sheriff vote?
Because trying to get unelectable batshit crazy Hong as the Dem candidate was worth accepting a loose change Sheriff race. That 3 way Repub race let the current useless flap of skin win. As others have mentioned, this was a lack of party leadership for an office that should NOT be partisan. Staunch conservatives like me that voted for Hong took a chance, and it almost worked. Or maybe it DID work, but overnight mischief, “fixed it”?
For the cross over for Hong but
I sure am glad i / we don’t have to wonder for the next 12 weeks if they can pull it out if she had won !
It has been reported elsewhere that if Hong had won, there would be many millions of dollars that would have flowed into her campaign to where we would wonder who was doing what !
Imagine all the false flags that might have happened to Tom Tiffany and the dirt they would manufacture against him which would be all lies ?!?
Once the election is over there is no going back because someone lied with a million dollar add buy.
No thank you. The fool hardy exercise of cross voting to get the lesser candidate to win just to get them to lose down the road was and is just too risky when you put in a socialist like Hong in that equation
So now the dems will Kamala Gonzalez in November. That guy would never answer the hard questions,draw your own conclusion but just think what wasn’t said during the campaign.
I’m curious to see whether Zoerner has the class not to penalize Tony and the staff members who came out against him.
Isn’t that ALL of them though?
I think it’s unfortunate that Zoerner won .
We could have done better.
Unreal. If you want fresh eyes and someone who has a proven track record of success, Beller was the choice.
Maybe the losers will choose to support Gary What’s-His-Name