Tuesday night, with 6,000 mail-in ballots left to process and scan, the democratic primary race for Erie County Executive was too close to call.

But by Wednesday evening, Erie County had a presumptive winner.

From a field of four candidates, Tyler Titus declared victory over Carl Anderson, his closest challenger in a brief news conference outside the Erie County Courthouse.

Titus read from a prepared speech, talking about his humble roots and thanking his opponents and supporters. “I grew up in poverty in rural Pennsylvania. I’m the child of a logger and a nurse. I know what it’s like to struggle—to be failed by government. As a small business owner and as President of the Erie School Board, I’ve seen how investing in our small businesses and our local schools are the key to our economic future. It’s imperative that we build back from this pandemic in a way that puts our families and communities first."

Titus went into the day after election leading the race, and that lead only widened as the count continued, from a margin of 110 votes at noon, to 141 mid-afternoon and then 208 when all the ballots were processed and scanned.

Tyler Titus will now face presumptive republican nominee Brenton Davis, who defeated Shawn Wroblewski in Tuesday's primary.

If he prevails in the general election, Tyler Titus would be the first openly transgender person in the nation to win a county executive seat.

He told Erie News Now that's not what make his win historic.  

"We did put forward a county executive democratic nominee who believes in health care for all, education for all, who believes in fighting for working class families. We have a lot of money coming in right now and the voters have said that they want new leadership to help elevate that so I think the true history comes with what this momentum has show we can do."

Carl Anderson said the loss, and not being able to achieve his goal stings.  He blamed the loss on what he called a lot of outside money funneled in to his opponent's campaign.  

At the suggestion of his supporters, Anderson said he is already considering staying in the race.  "Many of my supporters have approached me, and suggested that I should consider an independent candidacy or a write-in campaign," Anderson said.  "I will explore that because I owe it to Erie County and to the people, the 82-hundred people plus that voted for me."

Anderson expects to make a decision on an independent campaign in the next month.