El Paso County on Tuesday night, May 28, will be one step closer to having a new sheriff with the results of the Democratic primary runoff election.

The winner between retired El Paso County Sheriff’s Office Assistant Chief Robert “Bobby” Flores and Constable Oscar Ugarte in the Democrat runoff will face the Republican candidate, retired FBI Special Agent Minerva Torres Shelton, in the general election on Nov. 5.

Voting results: Live results as El Paso heads to the polls in the 2024 primary runoff election

The winner in November will replace Sheriff Richard Wiles, who is retiring after being sheriff since 2009. Before being elected sheriff, Wiles was El Paso’s police chief.

Unofficial early voting results had Ugarte in the lead at 58.4% with 9,017 votes compared with Flores at 41.6% with 6,461 votes.

The question entering the runoff was whether Flores could catch up to Ugarte, the top vote-getter in the March 5 primary election.

In March, Ugarte was far in the lead in the five-candidate field, receiving 43% of the votes (15,436 votes) with Flores coming in second with nearly 24% (8,521 votes).

Ugarte ran on a message that it was time for “a new generation of leadership” and generally skipped candidate forums in favor of door-to-door home visits with voters.

Among the events skipped, Ugarte twice declined to attend Channel 7-KVIA’s “ABC-7 Xtra” televised candidate shows, a longtime local TV staple of election season in El Paso.

Ugarte was publicly encouraged to run for sheriff by U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar along with state Reps. Joe Moody and Lina Ortega and also had the backing of Beto O’Rourke, likely El Paso’s nationally best-known Democrat.

Ugarte has been county constable for Precinct 1, which covers parts of Central, Northeast and West El Paso, since 2016. He was previously with the Socorro Police Department for two years before working as a court bailiff and a deputy constable.

Politics: Big name endorsements shape El Paso County sheriff race in 2024 election

Flores ran on his more than 30 years of experience in variety of roles in the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office where he rose in the ranks from detention officer to one of the top leadership posts as assistant chief in charge of the Jail Annex.

Flores’ campaign sought to brand Ugarte as too inexperienced to be sheriff, a political mailer called Ugarte “the most unqualified candidate to ever run for sheriff.”

Ugarte has countered that his 20 years in law enforcement experience and the dedication and commitment to run a community-oriented department.

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, which has a budget of about $122 million, is tasked with law enforcement duties in the unincorporated areas of the county and operates the county jail system made up of the Downtown jail and the Jail Annex on the far East Side.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso sheriff runoff election: Bobby Flores, Oscar Ugarte in showdown