Incumbent El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder appeared to have won a second four-year term, defeating challenger Mike Angley by more than 10,000 votes in Tuesday’s Republican primary.

With more than 90 percent of the ballots counted, Elder had 44,378 votes, or about 57 percent, according to unofficial results from the county Clerk and Recorder’s Office. Angley had about 32,987 votes, or about 43 percent.

Elder will face Democratic candidate Grace Sweeney-Maurer, a retired paralegal, in the November election, although in the heavily Republican county, winning the Republican nomination is tantamount to election.

At a gathering at El Padrino Mexicano restaurant in northeast Colorado Springs, Elder hugged family and supporters when the results were announced. Among the crowd were state Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May and Colorado Springs Police Chief Pete Carey.

“This has been 11 months of push, push, push,” he told the crowd. “I’m excited that we’re finally through this piece. We did the right thing. We stood up to the bullying.”

He led his supporters in a toast “to the citizens of El Paso County and the 835 employees of the Sheriff’s Office.”

Angley, a self-described political outsider who worked for more than 25 years as a special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, made reports of internal dissatisfaction with Elder’s leadership a focal point of his campaign. But his claims of cronyism in the Sheriff’s Office weren’t enough to persuade voters to replace the incumbent.

Angley did not return multiple phone calls and emails asking for comment Tuesday night.

Elder, who spent more than 20 years working for the Sheriff’s Office and Fountain Police Department before his election four years ago, has said that Angley’s allegations against him in campaign ads, mailers and countless blog posts have no basis in fact.

His supporters say that he has improved morale among staff and restored professionalism to the office after disgraced ex-Sheriff Terry Maketa stepped down in 2014.

“He (Elder) has turned the office around from the disaster of the last administration,” Sheriff’s Cmdr. Clif Northam said at the restaurant.

Carey, too, said he was pleased with the election results.

“It guarantees that we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

Elder campaigned on his crackdown on illegal marijuana grows that he claims have proliferated in the county since pot was legalized. Elder said he plans to continue the crackdown and work with lawmakers for more stringent marijuana laws.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Elder told The Gazette after the first round of election results was announced.