An out lesbian who is currently suing an Ohio sheriff’s office for discrimination defeated the man who fired her for the Democratic nomination for sheriff in Tuesday’s primary.

Charmaine McGuffey, a former sheriff’s major for the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, overwhelmingly won the Democratic nomination, grabbing 70% of the vote against incumbent Sheriff Jim Neil, a conservative Democrat who had previously stoked the ire of some Democratic partisans for attending a rally for President Donald Trump in uniform back in 2016.

McGuffey, who was endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party in January, has made criminal justice reform the center of her campaign, arguing that she’s more in touch with average Ohioans who want to see changes in terms of how police conduct themselves. 

McGuffey had previously worked in the sheriff’s office for 33 years, eventually assuming the rank of Major of Jail and Court Services in 2013, making her the first-ever woman to attain that position. But in 2017, Neil fired her and launched an internal investigation, claiming she created a hostile work environment for other sheriff’s department employees, and lied about it, according to Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO.

McGuffey then filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the sheriff’s office and other local officials, arguing that the investigators’ report targeted her because she was a woman and a lesbian, and was a form of retaliation for trying to investigate incidents involving officers who were accused of excessive use of force, sexual harassment of female prisoners and employees, and other supervisory issues.

Neil, who was first elected in 2012, posted a statement on his campaign’s Facebook page reading: “While the outcome tonight is disappointing, I am grateful for everyone who has supported me these last eight years. Congratulations to my opponent on her victory.

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“I will continue to put the citizens of Hamilton County first before politics. My base has always been the working class, blue-collar Democrats, moderates who many in the party have forgotten,” he added. “Our campaign valued integrity and not the type of politics you see in the city. This is not a goodbye, but a temporary pause.”

Already, her Republican opponent, Bruce Hoffbauer, a former Cincinnati police officer, has struck a similar tone, accusing McGuffey of trying to politicize the department by pushing a “progressive political agenda,” according to WKRC.

But McGuffey told Metro Weekly in an interview that she is proud of her reform-centric campaign.

“I was embracing reform in bringing in programming and changing that paradigm of the way that we keep a hard incarceration model. It’s like a 1950s incarceration model. And I began to hold officers accountable for excessive use of force in the jail. There were some pretty serious incidents where people prisoners were hospitalized and so forth,” she said. “I also spoke up against the sexual harassment of female inmates by male officers,  and female officers being sexually harassed by male officers. And because I continued to complain and would not put my name on it and would not back down, Jim Neil, who is the current sheriff, he fired me on May 5, three years ago.”

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McGuffey filed her lawsuit, asking to be reinstated and receive back pay, as well as compensation for legal fees incurred by bringing the lawsuit, on the grounds that she had been wrongfully terminated. Her case is scheduled to be argued in federal court in June. If the judge decides in her favor, she’ll be able to move forward with a trial.

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“I’m looking forward to the trial because I am going to prove to the public that what I was saying was correct, that I am a true whistleblower,” she said. “I was damaged quite a bit and a lot of different ways. But you know what this lawsuit is not about? Me coming away with five hundred million dollars. It’s about the truth and it’s about compensation for what someone did to me, which was completely unlawful, unethical and immoral.”

But she wasn’t satisfied with simply asking for her job back.

“After I fought the lawsuit, I began thinking about it and contemplating it, and I decided, ‘You know what? Overall, I can do a better job than him.’ And I decided, ‘I’m going to run for sheriff,’ because I know what [Neil] is not doing and I know what we need to do. We need to bring reform to the system. … And my plan is to go back there and be the sheriff and deliver justice in a fair and equal way for everybody across the board.”

McGuffey, a lifelong Democrat, said she’s not going to run from her party affiliation or her beliefs, even though Hamilton County has historically leaned Republican. She touts her roots growing up on the county’s western side, known for its relative conservatism. She also dismissed Neil’s claims that she is an activist and that only he is representing the interests of blue-collar, socially moderate Democrats who have allegedly been “forgotten” by elites in their own political party.

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“I believe our party needs leaders who will bring everybody together to the table. And that’s who I am,” she said. “I won with 70 percent of the vote. You don’t get that kind of vote unless you’re pulling in not just progressives, but conservative Democrats and independents.”

She also claims that she is the candidate speaking on behalf of the rank-and-file officers within the police force.

“I’ve said it 100 times, I want to hold the officers accountable in our 850-men-and-women-strong department, those few people who need to be held accountable,” McGuffey said. “So many other people in that department that are excellent. They wear the uniform. They’re in it for the right reason. And those are the people that are going to help me move it forward.”

See also: Federal judge to hear case of Louisiana sheriff’s deputy allegedly denied job due to HIV status

Asked if she’s worried about attacks on her sexual orientation that might derail her candidacy, she says she’s already weathered some attacks.

“I’ve experienced some backlash with being a lesbian, some of the ridiculous comments that people who support my opponent post on Facebook and so forth,” she said. “I’m certain they’ll attack me, but they’re going to be hard pressed to find some new stuff to throw at me, because I think the only thing Jim Neil didn’t do is go back and interview my fifth-grade nun who didn’t like me. I’m not intimidated by it. I’ve been a woman in this business for many years, and I’ve been gay my whole life. So I’m not the faint of heart. I’m up for this fight. … And I believe I can win.”

Sean Meloy, the senior political director for the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which endorsed McGuffey’s bid for office, celebrated her victory in the primary, saying the organization, which pushes for out LGBTQ people to seek political office, is fully behind her.

“Charmaine exemplifies everything we look for in a candidate,” Meloy told Metro Weekly in an interview. “She had a great plan and she had an amazing reason why she was running. She was trying to really effectuate change as she had felt the outright homophobia and injustices that were already present in the sheriff’s office and department. And that’s hugely important in the drive of a candidate. And clearly, it helped drive her to win it.”

Asked to analyze the sheriff’s race in terms of McGuffey’s likelihood of victory, Meloy expects a tight race headed into November.

“It’s definitely competitive. I think the opponent she defeated was the first Democrat to hold this office in quite some time, so it’s going to be a fight,” Meloy said. “I believe that a large chunk of this county is in a targeted congressional seat. And then obviously, Ohio is always a swing state when it comes to the presidential election. So it’s going to be a very interesting race to continue to watch. But we’ll be continuing to support Charmaine through November.”

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