As Aaron Pitts made his way through the communities of Kingfisher County to campaign for sheriff in recent months, he said there was one consistent message.

“People kept saying they felt there needed to be change,” Pitts said. “They didn’t have real complaints or say anything was wrong currently with the sheriff’s office, but a lot felt like there needed to be a new regime.”

Those people voted for that change last Tuesday. Pitts made up ground in several polling sites and dominated the ballot boxes north of the Cimarron River to edge current Undersheriff Jonathan Riedlinger by a total of 27 votes in the Republican primary runoff election.

With no democrat on the ballot, that means Pitts will be sworn in as Kingfisher County sheriff in January.

He’ll succeed Dennis Banther, who is retiring at the end of this year.

Banther had campaigned for Riedlinger, who has worked at the sheriff’s offi ce since 2013 and earlier this year was promoted to undersheriff.

Riedlinger narrowly missed winning the election outright during the June 18 primary.

He pulled in 1,321 of the 2,669 votes cast, which was 49.5%. Had he garnered just 14 more votes, Riedlinger would have had the necessary 50% plus one majority.

However, in that primary election the four major precincts in either Hennessey or Dover (Hennessey Library, Hennessey Public Schools, Central Baptist Church and Dover Town Hall) came in with a strong Pitts push to land him 770 total votes, which got him to the runoff election.

“I’m glad to get in, but I would have liked to get a few more votes,” said Pitts at the time. “That’s a lot to make up.”

Tuesday’s election offered much the same projection.

As the precinct reports rolled in, Riedlinger was maintaining anywhere from 61.6 to 63.6% of votes cast.

However, Pitts wasn’t discouraged.

In fact, he felt somewhat confident.

“I felt some confidence because I felt if I could keep it fairly close in Kingfisher, I’d have a chance,” Pitts said. “I didn’t think I’d win there, but thought maybe I could gain from the previous election.”

Pitts did just that. He picked up 72 more votes at Kingfisher Memorial Library than in the primary election. Though Riedlinger received more votes than Pitts (239-154), his total was 32 fewer than he received in June.

The Senior Citizens Center provided some of the same projections.

Riedlinger won the site 296-184.

However, his total was 22 fewer than June while Pitts gained 94 more votes.

The current Hennessey chief of police also saw a big gain in Okarche.

Voters there gave Riedlinger a 183-110 advantage, but Pitts picked up 85 more votes than he did in June. Riedlinger’s total was 22 fewer.

As Pitts noted, he was “keeping it close.”

Still with four precincts left to report, Riedlinger held 62.4 percent of the votes.

That’s when the election started to turn.

At the Hennessey Library, Pitts had a 92-15 advantage.

At HPS, it was 382-43. On top of that, Pitts gained 82 more votes than the primary while Riedlinger dropped 24 votes.

At Central Baptist Church, Pitts out-gained Riedlinger 32-18 and Dover Town Hall it was 65-38.

In those four precincts, Pitts held a 571-114 advantage, more than 83%.

In all, 2,287 people voted in the runoff compared to 2,669 in the primary.

Pitts gained 387 more votes despite 382 fewer people voting.

“I want to thank everyone who supported me during my campaign and also to all of those who came out and voted on Aug. 27,” Riedlinger told the Times & Free Press.

“Congratulations to Mr. Pitts on his victory. I wish him the best when he takes office in January 2025.”

Pitts was encouraged by that amount considering the sheriff’s race was the only thing on the ballot for all but three precincts who were voting for the District 3 commissioner.

“I appreciate the communities being so involved,” he said. “I’m impressed with the amount who got out to vote.”

Voting was something Pitts said he encouraged everyone to do when campaigning.

“I just kept telling people it was important to vote, whether they were voting for me or for Jonathan,” he said. “I told them it was important to get out and make their voice heard because too many times elections have been decided when not very many people get out there and vote.”

Pitts said he and Riedlinger were able to run a civil campaign amongst themselves.

“He and I talked on a fairly regular basis and we got along well,” Pitts said. “I have nothing but respect for him and I feel bad for him and his family, because I know how stressful the campaign was.

“But we both can’t win; only one of us could.”

Pitts also acknowledged there were outside forces working to influence the campaign. Multiple social media posts and videos were posted, many of which shone a negative light on the current sheriff’s office and/ or Riedlinger.

Pitts said he had nothing to do with negative campaigning.

“I would hope they (current sheriff’s office) would know I had nothing to do with it and I hope the people know that too,” Pitts said.

“I have kept it clean this entire time. I never once said anything bad about Dennis or Jonathan.

“I’m never going to talk badly about someone for self gain.”

Pitts will continue in his role as Hennessey police chief as he prepares for his new one.

He has broad goals for the sheriff’s office under his campaign, but knows it will take time to get more specific.

“Transparency will be big for me,” he said. “The people are going to know what’s going on.”

Pitts also wants to increase the staff…if possible.

“Hopefully we will be able to increase staffing,” he said. “I haven’t seen the budget and by the time I take over, the fiscal year will be half over. But we’ll look at it then and see what’s been spent and what’s remaining.

“But I will be trying to get deputies in as many of the communities as possible, especially the towns like Dover and Loyal that don’t have police departments. We want to protect those people and make sure they feel safe.”