In a heated race in Ohio, Democrat Charmaine McGuffey ran to be both the county’s first female and first out LGBTQ person elected sheriff. She also ran against the man she alleges fired her because she’s a lesbian – current Sheriff Jim Neil, a Trump-supporting Democrat.
And she stomped him at the ballot box, winning approximately 70 percent of the vote.
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“The current sheriff and I got into a pretty serious disagreement about the practice of him not holding officers accountable for use of force and harassment of women, female officers, and female inmates,” McGuffey told LGBTQ Nation. “He fired me. So after about a year or so of contemplating, I decided I can do a better job than him.”
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“Quite frankly, my opponent has pretended to be a Democrat for many years now, when he’s actually much more aligned with the Tea Party Republicans. He tells people what they want to hear and then doesn’t follow through.”
“[My election] would mean that our country is moving forward,” she said at before the vote, “that we really have moved away from the 1950s model of law enforcement, where not just women are embraced in the law enforcement world, but also LGBTQ members of the community can wear a uniform and be quite successful.”
McGuffey spent 33 years working in the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO). When she was promoted to Major in Command of jail and court services, she also became the highest-ranking woman in the HCSO’s history.
In 2015 she was honored as the local and regional Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. In 2016, the Ohio House of Representatives named her the Public Citizen of the Year.
The Democratic Party endorsed her, snubbing the controversial sheriff who appeared on stage with President Donald Trump at a Cincinnati campaign rally.
She will face off with a Republican opponent in the general election and is expected to handily win the race.
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