There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is Hobart Lewis.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting as of 9:45 Tuesday night, Lewis beat out Democrat challenger Paul Guy by a wide margin in the special election, taking home 25,509 votes, or about 76 percent percent of the total, compared to Guy’s 8,061 votes, or about 24 percent of the total.

This final win comes after Lewis previously won a Republican primary and a primary runoff race against opponent A.T. “Tommy” Smith.

“I have worked the road answering calls and dealing directly with citizens,” Lewis said. “I have heard the concerns from citizens as well as deputies who are our first point of face-to-face contact. I truly believe we can make things better and this community safer.”

Lewis said his number one goal when taking office would be to develop a team concept and reallocate manpower to put more deputies in the outlying areas of the county.

“We currently have about 155 deputies working the assigned beat areas,” Lewis said. “We can restructure the Uniform Patrol Team to add six more deputies on a patrol shift on day one to add at least three deputies to our northern and southern parts of the county.”

The election was to decide who would replace former Sheriff Will Lewis (no relation to Hobart Lewis), who was removed from office and later sentences to a one-year prison term on charges of misconduct in office.

Hobart Lewis said he decided to run for office to reinstate a sense of strong leadership in the sheriff’s office.

“I believe that I have a plan to give back to this community and lead the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office into the future,” Lewis said. “The men and women at the sheriff’s office have all the skills and work ethic to continue to serve our citizens, but we need clear direction and stability to rebuild the relationships and trust within our community.”

 

 

 

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