Republican Donnie Harrison lost re-election as Wake County Sheriff Tuesday night to Democrat and former deputy Gerald Baker.

Baker won with 54.63 percent of the votes over Harrison, who was first elected as sheriff in 2002. Baker retired from service last spring and has served with the Wake County sheriff’s office for 28 years. 

Before results were announced, Harrison discussed how he did not expect to trail behind in election results.

“Anytime it takes the polls this long to hear back, you begin to worry,” Harrison said at the Republican watch party Tuesday evening. “You see that polls from early voting are against you- you begin to wonder, is everyone against you? You thought you were doing a pretty good job, and next thing you know, you’re trailing the polls.”

Harrison received both support and backlash for his work with ICE and detaining undocumented immigrants. Harrison and his office worked with a program called 287(g), which allowed local law enforcement to partner with ICE agents.

According to The News & Observer, Baker’s victory over Harrison had the closest totals since Harrison was first elected in 2002.

According to Harrison, everything that they campaigned on in 2002 and talked about were initiatives that he views as successes during his term such as reduced response times, more deputies in the field, citizen well-check programs and Project Lifesaver.

Mary Dare Martin contributed to this reporting.