Socialist Walton on track to be Buffalo’s first female mayor

‘Third-poorest mid-sized city in this country’ should be working to eradicate poverty, she says

BUFFALO, N.Y. — India Walton, a socialist community activist, has defeated the four-term mayor of Buffalo in a Democratic primary, putting her on track to become the first woman to lead New York’s secondlargest city.

The 38-year-old nurse and union leader captured a major political prize for the party’s left wing with her victory over Mayor Byron Brown.

The Associated Press called the race Wednesday after it became clear there weren’t enough absentee ballots for Brown to overcome Walton’s lead. She had declared victory Tuesday night.

Walton is all but assured to win the general election in November. There is no Republican candidate in the race. Walton was born in Buffalo’s economically depressed east side and became a working mother at 14. After earning her GED while pregnant, she went on to become a nurse in the same hospital where her twins were born.

On the campaign trail, she said Buffalo’s much-talked-about renaissance of recent years, marked by the transformation of the city’s waterfront and medical campus, has passed too many residents by.

“All that we are doing in this moment is claiming what is rightfully ours,” Walton told cheering supporters inside a city nightclub. “We are the workers. We do the work. And we deserve a government that works with and for us.”

Asked by reporters if she identified as a socialist, she said, “Oh absolutely.”

“I’m just excited to be a part of this movement that is ushering progressive politics into Buffalo,” she told reporters. “Being the third-poorest mid-sized city in this country, we should be considering how we begin to eradicate concentrated poverty and disadvantage.”