Socialist Democratic Nominee Endorsed by AOC Getting Trounced by Write-In Candidate in Mayor's Race in New York
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York supported her, as did Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Buffalo voters? Not so much.
In a contest that received national attention from the left, Democratic Socialist India Walton appears to have been defeated in her attempt to become the city’s mayor.
Walton had stunned incumbent Democrat Byron Brown by winning a June Democratic primary. Brown then launched what appears to be a winning write-in campaign.
Republicans, who did not field a candidate, helped Brown with his write-in effort.
New York Dems literally teamed up with Republicans to stop India Walton, a socialist and a woman of color, from becoming mayor of Buffalo. Funny how their obsession with identity politics evaporates when it comes to stopping the left.
— ca?️ral (@comradeaux) November 2, 2021
Because Brown was running as a write-in, the only thing certain on election night itself was the number of write-in votes received.
With 96 percent of Buffalo’s voting districts reporting, 59.1 percent of the votes were cast for a write-in candidate, and 40.9 percent for Brown, according to WIVB-TV.
The margin between the Write-In line and Walton was about 10,000 votes. That was good enough for Brown, who declared victory.
“Today’s election was not just a referendum on the city of Buffalo. It was a referendum on the future of our democracy,” he said, according to WIVB.
As elections officials prepare for a full count and examination of the write-in votes, which will not start for two weeks, Walton was not admitting defeat.
“This is definitely not a concession speech,” she said, saying it remained uncertain whose name was on each write-in ballot.
Moreover, absentee votes can arrive through Nov. 9 as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 2.
Progressives on Twitter thrashed over the apparent loss.
The most frightening outcome of an India Walton loss:
You’re going to see a lot fewer Democrats conceding to progressive/socialist insurgents who beat them in primaries.
— C.M. Lewis (@thehousered) November 2, 2021
Much to say about India Walton’s loss, but my instant thought goes to how unfair it is to be poor. The petty mistakes of Walton’s personal life were considered more important than Brown’s 15 years of corruption and mismanagement in actual office.
— Branko Marcetic (@BMarchetich) November 3, 2021
It’s “vote blue no matter who” until a progressive Black woman runs to improve the lives of people who are hurting the most.
I’m proud of the campaign @Indiawaltonbflo and her team ran.
Tonight is hard, but tomorrow the fight for justice continues. https://t.co/DLh4Qwm909
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) November 2, 2021
Walton’s past includes an accusation of welfare fraud and failure to pay taxes, tidbits that were not widely known when she defeated Brown in June, according to WKBW-TV.
As such, once she was under the scrutiny that followed her victory in the primary, her standing among voters began to sink, leading to pre-election polls that predicted a resounding win for Brown even though many top Democrats — such as Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — supported Walton.
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