India Walton—a self-described democratic socialist, former nurse, and founding executive director of Fruit Belt Community Land Trust—shocked the Buffalo NY establishment by defeating four-term incumbent Mayor Byron Brown in the Democratic Party primary by a seven percentage-point margin (51.9 percent to 44.8 percent).
If Walton prevails in November, she will become the first socialist mayor of any US city of over 100,000 people since 1960.
When asked on election night whether she was a socialist, Walton responded “Absolutely.” She elaborated that “the entire intent of this campaign is to draw down power and resources to the ground level, to the hands of the people.
When we think about socialism, we’re perfectly fine with socialism for the rich. We will bail out Wall Street and banks and give a billion dollars in tax incentives to one of the richest people in the world to build an empty Tesla factory in South Buffalo. And when it comes to providing the resources that working families need to thrive, socialism becomes scary at that point.”
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