Socialist mayoral candidate projected to lose to write-in Democratic incumbent in Buffalo

India Walton, the Democratic nominee for mayor of Buffalo, New York, was the only mayoral candidate on Tuesday's ballot — and she appears to have lost. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Walton had just 40.9 percent of the votes, while the other 59.04 percent were write-ins, presumably for Mayor Byron Brown, the four-term Democratic incumbent she defeated in a June primary election upset.

Brown, 63, claimed victory Tuesday night. "We couldn't have done this without you," he told supporters. "This has been a remarkable journey that we've been on together for the past four and a half months." Walton did not concede, but she said she "knew this was going to be an uphill battle" and acknowledged that the numbers aren't on her side.

Walton, 39, would have been Buffalo's first female mayor and the first socialist to lead a major U.S. city since 1960. Assuming Brown wins, he will be the first person to win a citywide election in Buffalo as a write-in candidate, The Buffalo News reports.

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