Nanos leads early in race for Pima County Sheriff

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In the race for Pima County Sheriff, incumbent Sheriff Chris Nanos faces Lieutenant Heather Lappin.

As of 10:45pm, Nanos leads the race by 25,119 votes. Nanos has 143,389 votes, while Lappin has 118,270 votes.

Nanos began his career in law enforcement over 30 years ago. He said he’s worked every role in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

He was first appointed as sheriff in 2015 until 2017. He lost against former Sheriff Mark Napier before winning the sheriff’s seat in 2020. He’s now seeking his second full term.

“We are excited, of course, and optimistic,” he said. “And we’re feeling a little bit of caution too because there are still a lot of votes to count but we are pleased that we are ahead."

If elected to another term, he said his focuses include the jail infrastructure, department staffing and continuing his community policing programs.

His challenger, Lieutenant Heather Lappin has been with the department for 19 years. She stresses the importance of leadership in the role. She says she would implement servant-based and people-first leadership. One of Lappin’s focuses is addressing retention to help address staffing in the department.

After the first drop of results, Lappin said she still feels optimistic. She says even if she doesn’t come out victorious, she’s very happy with her campaign.

“The numbers are what they are,” Lappin said. “I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to run this campaign and I’m thankful to the voters that have voted for me. We’ll see… the nights early, those were early ballots. We’ll see what the polls look like.”