It looks like the current captain of the Erie County Sheriff's Office will be moving up the ranks.

Chris Campanelli declared victory in the race for county sheriff front of his supporters Tuesday night.

He has a solid lead over Republican Brian Shank with 59 percent of the vote to Shank's 41 percent.

The Democrat spent 25 years at the Sheriff's Office and said he is honored to be its next leader.

"Our office has always had honor and integrity," said Campanelli. "We're gonna move that forward without question. We have to work on some training issues and equipping our deputies, but in the future, we're going to be fine."

Campanelli received the endorsement from current Sheriff John Loomis who is retiring after 8 years as leader of the department.

Shank fell behind early and never was able to catch up despite winning some key precincts.

He did not concede Tuesday night and was hoping the remaining uncounted precincts would go his way.

Shank said he was thankful for all his support.

"I'm proud of the election," said Shank. "There was no mud slinging. I kept it clean. We didn't use any outside funds. We used everything internal. I think what was a factor was the outside funding that came in and kind of put a little hurt on our campaign."

Shank's campaign was targeted by former a New York-based anti-gun group financed by former New York Mayor and Billionaire Michael Bloomberg.