WHITEHALL — Sheriff Erica Koxlien won the Trempealeau County Republican Party's endorsement Thursday night, taking 62 percent of a paper straw poll cast by members after the party's first candidate forum at Whitehall High School.
That cleared the 60 percent threshold the party requires for its support. Chief Deputy Wayne Dahl and Blair Police Chief Kent Johnson tied at 19 percent each, according to a comment posted beneath the party’s livestream by Fred Ackley. The three figures total 100 percent. The party has not published the breakdown itself, and the Pioneer has not confirmed it with the party.
The poll measures one room: party members who chose to attend, voting among themselves. It binds no voter and carries no legal weight. The Aug. 11 ballot is another matter. No Democrat or independent has filed for the office, according to Ballotpedia's listings, so the Republican primary is likely to decide who serves as sheriff.
The Pioneer was not in the room. This account, including every quotation in it, comes from the party's Facebook livestream of the forum.
The moderator told the audience it was doing the hiring. “This is not a gotcha type of forum here,” he said — “basically a job interview” in which the audience was the boss. Candidates answered the same questions in rotation, with no rebuttals.
| Candidate | Current position | In law enforcement since |
|---|---|---|
| Erica Koxlien | Sheriff, appointed December 2025 | 2015 |
| Wayne Dahl | Chief deputy since 2022 | 1992 |
| Kent Johnson | Blair police chief, nearly six years | 2002 |
Koxlien joined the sheriff's office on patrol in 2015, rose to detective and was appointed sheriff in December by Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, after Sheriff Brett Semingson retired. Dahl has been with the sheriff's office since 2000 and is endorsed by three retired sheriffs, Semingson among them. Johnson, a Navy veteran who once worked at the sheriff's office, has led the Blair Police Department for nearly six years.
Staffing, budgets and the jail
“For the first time since 2020, our dispatch center is fully staffed,” Koxlien said, adding that patrol drew about a dozen qualified applicants in the latest round. Dahl named attraction and retention as one of the biggest things he would change. “We don't have a lot of people beating down the doors to work afternoons, nights, and holidays and weekends,” he said.
Johnson aimed the night's hardest shot at the jail the sheriff's office runs. Other counties have pulled their inmates from the roughly 100-bed facility, he said, undercutting the housing revenue it was built to earn. “Our jail is in shambles,” he said. That is his characterization, not a finding. The format gave neither Koxlien nor Dahl a chance to answer it, and the Pioneer has not verified which counties, if any, have withdrawn inmates or what the jail's revenue shows.
Johnson also said the office went almost five years without a dedicated drug officer until about a month ago, and that he would restore a dedicated investigator. “Drugs are killing this county. It's killing our people,” he said.
On budget cuts, Johnson said scheduling changes, particularly in dispatch, could shrink the office through attrition — “I would certainly not terminate or reduce staff” — and said he favored grants requiring no county match. Koxlien said neighboring rural counties should share resources and write grants, crediting “Mr. Johnson” on the point. Dahl said he would protect deputies and dispatchers first and cut “things that aren't as critical as the day-to-day operations,” noting that staffing is most of the budget.
Koxlien said her next 90 days include a domestic violence community response team and possibly a bond monitoring program. The office is also awaiting word on a $400,000 grant to join the Chippewa Valley forensic lab and download phone evidence locally. “Instead of sending them off and waiting up to 18 months to get evidence back, we can get it back within a day,” she said.
Who would run the office
Johnson made the night's most unusual promise: if he wins, Dahl keeps the No. 2 job.
Citing a new state law on how sheriffs appoint a chief deputy, Johnson said the statute would let a new sheriff send Dahl back to the ranks as “the highest paid patrol officer” in county history — and that he would not do it. “Wayne is going to remain as the chief deputy and the under sheriff,” he said. He added: “I believe that my leadership skills supersede Wayne's and I believe I would be a better sheriff.”
The three described their management styles differently. Koxlien called hers “transformational” and hands-on: “I am out there with the staff. I am doing a traffic stop … I don't want to ever lose touch with what they do on a day-to-day basis.” Dahl described his as straightforward and honest, from SWAT entries to terminations. “I always treat people with dignity and respect,” he said, “but I do want to hold people accountable.” Johnson said no single style works — “It is 100% impossible to have just one leadership style when you're running a sheriff's office” — and that he shifts his approach as situations and teams demand.
Accountability and transparency
On alleged misconduct, including by senior staff, Dahl said discipline is “my wheelhouse right now.”
The first thing we need to stand up and do is say, we made the mistake. If we don't hold ourselves accountable, how can we go out and hold the public accountable?
Wayne Dahl, chief deputy
Johnson said he would hear both complainant and officer, recalling a subordinate's serious mistake that he treated as a training failure rather than a firing offense. Blame, he said, “should roll uphill.” Koxlien called for “clear expectations and consistent follow through,” crediting both rivals by name — “complete investigations like Mister Johnson said,” and “honesty and accountability like Mister Dahl said.”
On transparency, Johnson pledged more public contact, including “at least a monthly show” on the local government TV channel: “There's no reason why we have to stay in Whitehall.” Koxlien pointed to partnerships with schools, businesses and first responders. Dahl noted that administrators legally cannot discuss personnel matters even when a disciplined employee goes public. “They can talk about it all they want to,” he said. “I can't.”
Asked about an unpopular decision, Johnson described taking six pages of notes to his city council to publicly confront a pattern of traffic stops by a law enforcement officer — stops he said were valid but had drawn complaints across Blair. “We all know that cops cover for cops, right? Wrong,” he said. “I stuck up for my city. I stuck up for my community. And that activity was put to a stop.” Dahl cited terminations he could not publicly explain, saying staff “only hear what the employee wants to say.” Koxlien said she cannot make everyone happy, but that explaining the “why” behind a decision builds understanding.
Mental health calls
Johnson and Dahl both attacked Wisconsin's emergency detention process.
“I'm just going to put it this way. It's hosed,” Johnson said, describing hourslong hospital waits and families driving three hours to visit relatives held as far away as Winnebago. He said he has met with the county health care center's director about creating local crisis beds. Dahl said detentions pull people “completely out of their support system,” with transports running three and a half hours, and that people in crisis must be treated “with dignity and respect.”
Koxlien pointed instead to partnerships: a new county behavioral health supervisor, a veterans crisis response team now launching, and crisis intervention training for all staff, including dispatchers.
Use of force and immigration
All three defended current use-of-force practice, noting that the state mandates much of the policy. Koxlien said she could not recall the last excessive use of force report. The office's aging Tasers keep failing, she said — “it's like we're buying parts in a back alley right now just to keep them going” — but dropping them would risk more force, not less. Dahl said a rural deputy working alone learns that “your mouth is your best tool.” Johnson endorsed “verbal judo,” a de-escalation course he took more than 25 years ago and still uses: “that is something that I would bring here.”
On U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Johnson said, “We are going to act 100% in compliance with the law,” citing his oath.
Koxlien said federal agents are already active in the county on their own schedule. “Cooperating with ICE — they don't ask us to. I don't know when they're coming. But they are here and they are taking out the criminals and the system's working.” Hispanic leaders she has spoken with “want the same things we want,” she said — tighter borders, criminals removed, an easier citizenship path for those following the law.
Dahl said the office's practice has not changed since 2000: the jail contacts ICE whenever a noncitizen is booked, and without a 287(g) agreement the county can hold someone only as long as local charges require. “We're going to cooperate. Absolutely,” he said.
Community programs
Koxlien highlighted BADGES — Building Alliances, Delivering Guidance, Educating Students — her program now in every county elementary school; a Handle With Care system that alerts schools after law enforcement calls involving a family; and internet-crimes presentations she said have reached more than 1,000 people since January.
Johnson cited senior-scam presentations he arranged with the state agriculture department and proposed using two unfilled positions to rotate a school resource officer through county schools. Dahl said the office is “doing pretty good” at outreach — K-9s, drones at the county fair — and would add scam presentations for seniors, who in some cases, he said, have lost $200,000 to $300,000.
“I am pretty much stuck to my office … it gets to be kind of lonely. So this is kind of a nice change for me to be out here,” Dahl said.
Closing arguments
Koxlien was the only candidate to say the race had turned negative. “I am not a politician. I have learned that. My skin is not thick,” she said, before reading supportive notes she keeps to get through the campaign. “If I can't get elected based on the positive changes I've made, then I don't deserve to be elected.”
Johnson said he became a police officer “because I don't like seeing people get bullied,” and closed on service. “We got the protect and serve written on our squad cars but we take out the serve. We need to put that serve back in there.”
Dahl kept his pitch short. “I want to provide the professional leadership at the Sheriff's Office, backed with experience,” he said, citing integrity, honesty and accountability, and asking for voters' support on Aug. 11.
The straw poll settled the party's endorsement and nothing else. The office is on the ballot Aug. 11.