Kimry Ward has been in law enforcement since 2016, and has been looking to be sheriff for the last four years. Ward started off doing transports and courtroom security, but before he was a deputy, he was contractor with several different mines in Nevada.
Ward worked across Nevada helping in mines. He was a supervisor in the mines, and said that he comes from a large mining family. He started off contracting, going from regular mining, to supervising mining, and working where he best fit in. He went from Louisiana to Nevada, before finally resting in Cibola County. “Mining in general has changed over the years, you know – they’re always trying to shutdown the coal mine. I wanted to come home, and coming to work for [Sheriff] Tony [Mace] seemed like a good deal,” Ward said. He started “from the bottom of this dog pile” and has been working his way up since.
Ward explained that he likes the way the department is working, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Ward said that he and Tomas Archuleta have been on patrol the longest, and “I don’t really see a reason to change the way the sheriff has the department running, only thing we need is more deputies and a larger budget. Other than that, I don’t really see a lot of change in that office. We have good people who work there so I don’t really see any changes – I really don’t. I think the biggest change we’re going to have is when we move that office to the old armory,” Ward said. He said he has sat down and has thought about it “100 different ways” but can’t think of any ways to change the department. Sheriff Tony Mace has been to battle with the County Commission several times for his budget, and Ward said that is likely going to be keeping things at this level. He said that a bigger budget is important to update the equipment, from long guns to handguns and new vehicles. “We just need to stay on top of them.”
When asked why the public should vote for Ward over the other Democrats in the field, “I don’t really have an answer for that,” and said that he had been planning on running for four years, and said that he is the youngest candidate in the field and that all of the other candidates are nearing or at retirement age. “I don’t have an answer for that, its kind of an arrogant question to ask, ‘why should people vote for me?’ Why because I’m better than everyone else? No. I just want to be the sheriff, it’s just my thing.”