Joel Howard, a lieutenant at the Bennington County Sheriff’s Department, decided to drop his bid to run as an independent candidate after getting the most Republican write-in votes in the primary election.
James Gulley Jr., a Manchester police officer and law enforcement instructor, won the Democratic primary with 44% of the vote. His two opponents said they’d already filed the necessary paperwork to run as independent candidates in the general election in November.
The competitive race tested the popularity of George’s progressive policies, which Kenney argued have gone too far.
All three declared candidates say the next sheriff should be more visible than outgoing Sheriff Chad Schmidt has been during his most recent term in office.
