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DULUTH — Gordon Ramsay, who spent a decade as this city's police chief was elected sheriff of the geographically vast St. Louis County — the first time the department has had new leadership in two decades.

Ramsay had 49.82% of the votes, compared to current undersheriff Jason Lukovsky's 40.26% according to the unofficial results on the Secretary of State's website. Write-ins had 9.93% of the votes — many of which likely went to Chad Walsh, a Moose Lake police officer and businessman who actively campaigned despite not advancing to the general election.

Sheriff Ross Litman, who has run unopposed in every election after his first in 2002, is scheduled to retire in early January 2023.

The race pitted against each other two candidates with similar backgrounds and about the same amount of time spent in law enforcement. Both graduated from Duluth high schools — Ramsay from Duluth East, Lukovsky from Denfeld — and both studied at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Ramsay was Duluth's police chief from 2006 to 2016, when he took the same job in Wichita, Kan. He left that position earlier this year, telling Wichita media that he wanted to spend more time with his family. They have since moved back to Duluth.

Sharon Booth is a retired educator who voted in the central part of Duluth at First United Methodist Church. Police protection and public safety were among her priorities this year. She voted for Ramsay, she said, "because he's very responsible, caring and respectful. I go along with his beliefs."

Lukovsky, the undersheriff since 2021, is a careerlong member of the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office and has steadily made his way through all of the promotable positions — investigator, sergeant, lieutenant and supervising deputy.

In a recent interview, Litman said that the Sheriff's Office would be fine regardless of who succeeded him — but his vote was with Lukovsky.

"There are occasions where any agency, whether it's the Police Department or Sheriff's Office, that require someone from the outside to come in and fix them," he said. "I do not believe that is the case here."

Jana Hollingsworth contributed to this report.