Pierce County Sheriff PIO Ed Troyer announces campaign for Sheriff

Ed Troyer, who has been the Pierce County Sheriff public information officer, has a big announcement that he’s making Tuesday on KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show.

“Two things: First off, today is my 35th anniversary, if you can believe that. I was hired on Cinco de Mayo, 1985. So it’s my 35th anniversary and we thought this would be a good time to let everybody know that I’m going to start kicking off my campaign to run for the Sheriff of Pierce County,” Troyer said.

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Sheriff Paul Pastor has reached his term limit.

“He’s a great guy, but he’s been sheriff for 19 years and he can’t run again,” Troyer said about Pastor. “I’d like to step in and continue on with what we’re doing in our department. Continue to keep people safe, continue to make sure our guys are safe and do everything I can to build this department with leadership from within.”

A few months back, Paul Pastor said he was going to stay on through the craziness of what’s going on right now, but he can not continue as sheriff so Troyer will not be running against him.

“No, I’m not running against my boss and I never would. It’s just that he has 12 years in an elected position and that’s the term limit, so he’s done,” Troyer said. “What he was going to do was retire a little bit early, four or five months to get the department ready for future leaders. But then COVID came and put everything into a tailspin, and he graciously decided to stay through the end of his term, as it would have been normally anyways.”

So why Troyer? What is Troyer doing in Pierce County that’s notable, and why is he the guy to continue that?

“If you look at my past history, I actually spent 10 years on the streets working in a patrol car, I’ve worked investigations, I have a past commission with the FBI, past commission with different other federal agencies where I’ve been part of task forces,” he said. “And also, I have a lot of leadership experience in law enforcement.”

Troyer has been the executive director of the Crime Stoppers program and the Washington State Gambling Commissioner. He’s working with many nonprofits and charities in Pierce County, including foster kid programs, and is a foster parent himself, and with the seniors in the community.

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“I love Tacoma, Pierce County. I’ve worked for this department since day one, and I love our community and our people, and I’m looking forward to four years of continuing to do what we do best,” Troyer said.

Troyer has never run for a political office before, and recognizes that there will be challenges in kicking off his campaign during the middle of the pandemic. In lieu of in-person gatherings, his campaign launch and fundraising will primarily be on social media.

“Social media is something that, you know, I’m aware of Facebook but there’s so much more to social media now so I’ve had to recruit some help,” Troyer said.

His campaign manager on the social media side will be his 10-year-old granddaughter, Bella.

“She knows how to run TikTok and do it, and Instagram and these things, and she knows how to make them work,” he said. “I’ve talked to other adults my age who just get this blank stare when I talk about these things so I’m just going to go right to the source.”

Bella said she’s going to run her grandpa’s Instagram and that they’re working on a “Tiger King dance” on TikTok.

“Oh boy, looks like I’m learning that dance,” Troyer laughed.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.