COEUR d'ALENE — Incumbent Ben Wolfinger captured a commanding victory over his opponent in the Republican primary for Kootenai County Sheriff.

As of 10:55 p.m. Tuesday, Wolfinger had 7,778 votes while his opponent, John Green, had 4,996. On Tuesday night, Wolfinger told The Press he was thankful for the support he saw from the community.

"Thank you for getting out and for getting informed before casting your vote," Wolfinger added. "I think we're doing a good job and it's nice to see that the community agrees with that. It's the second primary in two months and that's very confusing. But I appreciate those who committed to getting educated and being involved."

On Tuesday night, Green told The Press he was a little disappointed at the results, but gave a tip of the hat to the sheriff.

"We had an agreement that we would run this campaign as gentlemen, and he stuck to that agreement," Green said.

Green added he was thankful to those who headed to the polls Tuesday to show their support for his campaign.

"I had a fabulous bunch of supporters," he said. "We ran a clean campaign and I am proud of that."

If the results hold, Wolfinger will square off against Democratic candidate Tina Kunishige, who ran unopposed in the primary, for the sheriff's position in November.

"I think that there's a lot of telltale signs when show their support for his campaign.

“I had a fabulous bunch of supporters,” he said. “We ran a clean campaign and I am proud of that.”

If the results hold, Wolfinger will square off against Democratic candidate Tina Kunishige, who ran unopposed in the primary, for the sheriff’s position in November.

“I think that there’s a lot of telltale signs when the party she signed up for refused to support her,” Wolfinger said of his next challenger.

“But we’ll take that on when the time comes. We’ve got work to do and we’ll continue to do that work.”