DeWitt Police Chief Gene Conway has beaten out Toby Shelley for the Onondaga County Sheriff’s seat.

Conway, who earned 66,569 votes to Shelley’s 58,829, said he was honored to have been chosen by the people of Onondaga County.

“For me, this truly is a lifelong dream,” he said to the crowd at the Republican Party’s celebration at the Sheraton Syracuse University. “I became a police officer in this community in 1977 and I’ve been a police officer ever since. And yes, my dreams came true tonight.”

Conway said plenty of people helped him in his campaign, but the biggest push came from State Sen. John DeFrancisco, who was also voted back into office Tuesday.

“I cannot thank [him] enough,” Conway said.

Conway also thanked the people of the town of DeWitt.

“Without them taking a chance on me 12 years ago, I’m sure I wouldn’t have this opportunity tonight,” he said.

Shelley conceded his loss to Conway in a speech at the OnCenter, where the Democrats held their Election Night celebration. Shelley also ran for sheriff in 2010, losing to incumbent Kevin Walsh.

“We did all we could with what we had,” Shelley said of his campaign. “It’s very hard for the little guy like us to make a difference. A lot of the time, it boils down to the person with the most money.”

In his concession speech, Shelley compared the election to the Super Bowl.

“We got tackled in the primary by the Conservatives. We got fouled by my opponent, who out-raised me by almost $100,000,” he said. “In all these tackles and fouls, what did we keep doing? We stood up and kept fighting.”