LA GRANDE — Temperatures are dropping in Union County, but the local law enforcement election front is heating up.

Shane Rollins, of Cove, a retired Marine, filed on Monday, Jan. 8, to run for Union County sheriff. Rollins will challenge incumbent Cody Bowen, who is completing his first four-year term. Bowen filed for reelection in September.

Rollins also ran for Union County sheriff in 2020, when he lost in the May primary election to Bowen.

Rollins, who is now an excavation contractor, spent the first years of his life in Imbler before his family moved to Alaska after his ninth grade year. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1999 and later served as a light armored vehicle crewman. His deployments while with the LAV included one to Iraq.

After five years as an LAV crewman, Rollins worked in law enforcement for the next 13 years with the Marines, including 10 years with its military police, for which he was a criminal investigator.

He retired in 2014 after a 21-year career in the military, which included six years in the National Guard in the 1990s. He then returned to the Grande Ronde Valley and now lives in Cove with his wife, Jody, and their two children.

Rollins said one of the things he would want to focus on as sheriff would be making sure money is budgeted correctly so it can best be spent on law enforcement.

Bowen has worked for the Union County Sheriff’s Office full time since 2011. He was a deputy before being elected sheriff.

The filing deadline for the May 2024 sheriff’s election is March 12.