Buffalo Mayor Says His Reelection Was An Admonishment Of Police Defunding, Socialism
After winning reelection earlier this week, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown claimed his already expected victory was a rebuke of defunding the police and “socialism.”
Originally, Brown was upset in the primary by Democratic Socialist India Walton, but appeared to be on track to win reelection as a write-in candidate.
“I think it clearly is a rebuke of defund the police, it is a rebuke of socialism, and I think there were those from outside the city of Buffalo that underestimated the Buffalo community,” he told CNN. “They tried to come in and tell us who to vote for, and the people fought back, and we won.”
A four-term incumbent, Brown’s statement comes as results show Walton trailing write-in candidates by a 41-59 margin.
On Wednesday (November 3), Walton said in a statement that “while we anticipate that the margins will narrow, it seems unlikely that we will end up with enough votes to inaugurate a Walton administration in January.”
While Brown portrayed himself during his campaign as a moderate, Walton pushed forward a slate of progressive policies, including an overhaul of Buffalo’s law enforcement, initially saying early in her bid for mayor that she’d champion a platform of defunding the police. Later she softened her stance to say she’d advocate for stopping police from responding to mental health calls and eventually remove police from quality-of-life calls.
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Walton, in her statement, accused Brown of “dirty tricks,” which Brown denounced while casting himself as a unifier.
“She was wrong about a lot of what she said during the course of the campaign,” he said. “She was wrong about wanting to defund police, she was wrong about wanting to raise our taxes as we’re coming through a pandemic. So just another misstatement from Ms. Walton. And the reason why she is the loser in the election is because of her inexperience and lack of qualifications for this position.”
“I’m a healer, I’m a uniter, my entire political career,” he added. “I’ve brought people together, and that’s what we’re going to do going forward in the city of Buffalo.”
