Battle for the badge: Stewart and Hollister gear up for the final leg of sheriff's race

Justin Garcia, Las Cruces Sun-News
·4 min read

This article is the first in a series examining the Doña Ana County sheriff's race and part of the Sun-News' continuing 2022 election coverage. What questions or issues would you like us to answer? Email JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com to let us know.

LAS CRUCES - In some respects, Kim Stewart and Byron Hollister are similar.

Both candidates for Doña Ana County sheriff are around the same age. Both hail from California with extensive law enforcement backgrounds. Both believe DASO has room to grow. They both rely upon their words to open doors and build bridges. They can talk to anyone about anything, a skill they value and credit as critical to being a good police officer.

But Stewart, the Democratic incumbent, and Hollister, the Republican challenger, differ significantly on how DASO should be run and what its deputies should focus on.

The candidates hold different views on the department's role in border policing, the role of the sheriff within the bureaucratic hydra of Doña Ana County, and other less existential issues like the use of school resources officers and deputy staffing.

The choice of who will lead DASO and how they will do it will fall to the voters of Doña Ana County in the Nov. 8 general election.

Who are the candidates?

For Stewart, 69, running to keep the seat is about building up and overseeing the changes she put in place in her first three years. If reelected for a second term, Stewart said she wants to focus on cementing the sheriff's office's roles, responsibilities and organizational structure. When she inherited the position, she said it was a mess.

Born in California, Stewart began her professional life as a wildland firefighter in Orange County. She graduated from the University of California Irvine in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in history.

While working as a firefighter, Stewart said an Orange County sheriff's deputy planted the seed in her mind that she might become a police officer one day.

Throughout her career, Stewart often found herself as the first woman hired as a police officer in that department. In Doña Ana County, Stewart is the first woman to ever hold the position of sheriff.

Hollister, 58, also hales from California. He told the Sun-News that he enlisted in the Army after high school to further his education. Initially, Hollister planned to return home after a few years overseas and work with his father, a scientist for Lockheed Martin.

While in the armed forces, Hollister was stationed in West Germany and working in the intelligence field during the Cold War. On the weekends, Hollister said he passed the time by playing baseball against European teams. His team eventually won a championship game in Spain. On vacation and watching from the stands, a New Mexico State University baseball coach took notice.

Hollister said the recruiter offered him a scholarship to play baseball at NMSU. He moved to Las Cruces in 1985 and graduated with a degree in criminal justice in 1990. He then enrolled in the Las Cruces police academy.

He spent seven and half years with the Las Cruces Police Department, mostly as a detective. He was then offered a job working in the U.S. Marshals Service. In 2005, Hollister became the co-commander of the Las Cruces outpost.

Now, Hollister owns and operates Hacienda Tile and Carpet in Las Cruces.

Community policing

Both candidates told the Sun-News that interpersonal communication, which they define as the critical component of community policing, was a valuable skill. It's also something they expect out of their subordinates.

"Community policing is availability to the community as needed," Stewart said. "That's what I've encouraged our staff to do and in various ways, be available, be accessible, take calls from the public, go to their meetings, try to assist."

The trick, Stewart says, is moving past the listening phase and into action.

Hollister said he'd teach deputies how to communicate, especially with young people who are "so into their phones." He added, "They're used to texting people, and they don't have that forced conversation that in my generation you had."

Hollister told the Sun-News that he'd install a DASO-dedicated public information officer who doubles as a chaplain to help meet his vision of community policing.

"This isn't going to be pressed on anybody, but there should be more God in the sheriff's department," Hollister said.

The last election

Both Stewart and Hollister beat their primary opponents handily in March.

Stewart received 5,218 votes (59%) against challenger James Frietze. Hollister received 3,497 (58%) votes against his challenger Omar Chavez.

When asked who each candidate needed to bring to their side and who they see as their core supporters, their answers were the same — the middle.

"The middle is very supportive of me," Stewart said. "I want to bring across voters who may not have voted for or been unable to vote in the primary."

Hollister said that he hopes that voters who like Frietze will like him.

Justin Garcia is a public safety reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com.

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This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Stewart and Hollister gear up for the final leg of sheriff's race