Dar Leaf, Michigan’s ‘constitutional sheriff’, wins primary by landslide

Dar Leaf, the prominent election-denying sheriff of Barry county, Michigan , and leader in the rightwing “constitutional sheriffs” movement, will win his Republican primary by a wide margin, according to unofficial vote totals.

No Democrats filed to run, so Leaf is likely to continue serving as sheriff.

Leaf, who has served as sheriff for 20 years, has developed a passionate base of support in Barry county – and has earned a national reputation for advancing the fringe notion, embraced by the constitutional sheriffs’ movement, that sheriffs have the ultimate authority to enforce the constitution in their jurisdiction – above the courts and federal government. He is connected with “sovereign citizens” who embrace an extreme, anti-government view and contend that they are not subject to US law, and also sells militia classes.

Related: Dar Leaf, Michigan’s ‘constitutional’ pro-militia sheriff, vies for re-election

Leaf’s opponents in Tuesday’s primary – the sheriff deputy Mark Noteboom, the sergeant Richelle Spencer and Joel Ibbotson, a local small business owner – made Leaf’s participation in the national far right a focus of their campaigns.

“He goes away and does these speaking engagements and when he’s doing that he’s not available to us and he’s not aware of what’s going on in his own community,” Spencer told the Guardian before the election.

In the wake of the 2020 election, Leaf – with the guidance of the election-denying lawyer, Stefanie Lambert – launched an investigation into the election in Barry county that remains open but has revealed no evidence of a plot. Still, Leaf has continued to tout his investigation, suggesting at the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) this year that his work on the election had not yet concluded.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Leaf – who has long espoused the idea that sheriffs should find alliances with militias – rallied alongside militia groups in opposition to Covid-19 lockdowns. Leaf’s defiance of social distancing mandates probably spoke to many residents of Barry county, which overwhelmingly elected Donald Trump in 2020. But he earned criticism, including from his own party, when he hedged his criticisms of men involved in the alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer – suggesting they had performed a citizen’s arrest.

“In Michigan, if it’s a felony, you can make a felony arrest,” he told reporters at the time.

Leaf’s win suggests that despite some local opposition, his extreme ideology continues to find resonance in his rural Michigan county.

• This article’s headline was amended on 8 August 2024. An earlier version incorrectly stated that Dar Leaf won his re-election. He won his primary; the final election result had not been determined.