Republican incumbent Paula Crouch defeated Democratic challenger Marc Bell in the race for Sangamon County sheriff in the Nov. 3 general election, with a victory margin of almost eight percentage points.
Crouch’s win – a 5,941-vote margin over Bell in a race that saw 76,305 votes cast – came amid a wave of Democratic victories at the state and federal level.
“I think that they, the voters, have recognized that I’m the change that the sheriff’s office needed, and that we are making improvements, and we are making progress and really just making a difference in the community,” Crouch told Illinois Times as unofficial vote totals indicated she would be the winner and the first woman elected to the post.
Crouch’s appointment as sheriff two years ago by County Board chairperson Andy Van Meter was ratified by the GOP-controlled board after the unexpected retirement of Republican Jack Campbell, who was in the middle of his second four-year term as sheriff.
Campbell retired unexpectedly in 2024 amid calls for his resignation after the fatal shooting of Sonya Massey, 36, an unarmed Black woman, in her Woodside Township home by former sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, a white man.
Massey’s death brought scrutiny to the sheriff’s office’s hiring practices and renewed attention to deaths of inmates at the Sangamon County Jail, which is operated by the office.
Crouch, 53, a retired former Springfield Police Department lieutenant who lives in rural Sangamon County between Williamsville and Sherman, campaigned as an agent of change, and so did Bell, 62, a retired Illinois State Police master sergeant and Springfield resident.
The sheriff is paid $182,654 a year and oversees a 210-worker department with an annual budget of more than $25 million.
Crouch’s candidacy was endorsed by Campbell, former sheriff Neil Williamson and other prominent local Republicans. Retired sheriff’s deputy David Timm, who lost to Crouch in a bitter primary for the Republican nomination for sheriff in March, endorsed Bell after the primary.
In the end, however, a majority of voters supported Crouch. She received 41,123 votes, or 53.9%, to Bell’s 35,182 votes, or 46.1%.
Bell led Crouch in early election returns, which represented ballots cast by mail and through in-office early voting prior to Nov. 3. Crouch pulled ahead as votes cast on Election Day began to be counted, and her lead only grew.
This was Crouch’s first bid for elected office. Bell, who would have become the county’s first Black sheriff, said he decided to run for sheriff after being approached by local residents after Massey’s death.
He previously ran unsuccessfully for state representative against Republican Mike Murphy in 2018.
Bell told Illinois Times in October that voter dissatisfaction with Republicans at the national level might translate to more votes for him. After the votes were counted, he said he didn’t know whether that was the case.
The sheriff election was closer than the last election in which there was competition. When Campbell was first elected sheriff in 2018, he defeated Democrat Odie Carpenter Jr. by an almost 27-percentage-point margin.
In the 2018 election, Campbell received 53,882 votes, or 63.4%, to Carpenter’s 31,100 votes, or 36.6%. The Republican incumbent sheriff, Wes Barr, was first elected in 2014 and decided not to run for re-election in 2018. Campbell was unopposed for re-election in 2022.
Sangamon County voters haven’t elected a Democratic sheriff since Martin Gutschenritter won in 1974.
Bell had said he would reverse what he called the sheriff’s office’s history of “nepotism and unethical practices” and “rebuild the trust between law enforcement and the community.”
Bell told Illinois Times on Nov. 3 that he was disappointed by the outcome and wished Crouch luck. He said he campaigned in all parts of the county and believe that Timm’s endorsement won him some votes from people who otherwise would have backed Crouch.
“We put it all on the field,” Bell said, adding that the voters “have spoken, and they’re not interested in the change we were hoping to provide.”
Bell said he didn’t think his loss was influenced by his initial announcement in February that he would withdraw as the Democratic candidate for sheriff because of a lack of financial support from the Democratic Party. He later changed his mind and opted not to remove his name from the ballot after a primary in which he was unopposed.
Bell said he saw Crouch, who was backed by the county’s Republican Party – as Campbell was – as representing the status quo.
If anything else negative happens at the sheriff’s office or jail, voters “own it,” Bell said.
Crouch said she has made positive changes at the sheriff’s office since her appointment two years ago. Those changes, she said, included a more thorough vetting process in the hiring of deputies, jail staff and court security officers, her support for higher pay for employees, increased community outreach and additional training on deescalation techniques in tense situations.
Crouch said she and her staff are planning to create a special unit in the jail where inmates with mental illness can receive enhanced services. She said she will approach the Sangamon County Mental Health Board to request financial support for the unit sometime in the next year.
To the people who voted for her, Crouch said her message is “thank you. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for the confidence that they’re putting in me to be sheriff for the next four years.”
Dean Olsen is a senior staff writer with Illinois Times. He can be reached at dolsen@illinoistimes.com, 217-679-7810 or www.x.DeanOlsenIT.
