A New Era for Central Texas: What Happened in the Sheriff’s Race!

The final votes for the Williamson County Sheriff were tallied by 1 a.m. Wednesday. It was a very tight race between the incumbent sheriff, Mike Gleason, and Republican candidate Matthew Lindemann. The election for sheriff was decided by a margin of less than 5% with Lindemann securing 52.13% of the vote.

Though he will be new to the elected position of sheriff, Lindemann is no stranger to law enforcement. He started his career as a corrections officer and deputy sheriff in 1985. Lindemann retired as a Texas Ranger after 21 years in 2018. Matthew Lindemann has also served as the Precinct 3 Constable (another elected position) for the last three years. As a longtime resident of Williamson County, Lindemann feels like he has roots in the county and is committed to making it a safer place for everyone.

Leading up to election day I wrote another article about the candidates' campaigns, and their plans to help fight crime and the growing fentanyl problem in the county. The previous sheriff, Mike Gleason, said that he wanted to take a forceful approach to the fentanyl problem. He wanted to stop the drugs before they reached the street dealers while they were being trafficked. Newly elected sheriff, Matthew Linderman campaigned on being more proactive. He feels that social programs intended to educate children on the dangers of opioids and other narcotics will prevent them from using the pills in the first place, and that there will be no reason to ship them into the city in the first place if there are no customers in the area to buy the drugs.