Socialist community leader India Walton declared victory Tuesday evening in the 2021 Buffalo, New York, mayoral race.

Walton, who campaigned in part on reallocating funds from the Buffalo Police Department toward other services and community initiatives, ousted Democratic Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who was first elected in 2005 to lead New York’s second-largest city.

“This is the work of a well-meaning group of rebels and revolutionaries that had a bold vision on what we want the future of our city to look like,” Walton told cheering supporters on Tuesday evening. “All that we are doing in this moment is claiming what is rightfully ours. We are the workers. We do the work. And we deserve a government that works with and for us.”

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Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party and a number of other progressive organizations endorsed Walton, who will be the first female mayor of the upstate city. New York Democratic-Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez congratulated Walton on her win in a Tuesday tweet.

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While Walton has not used the word “defund,” she has advocated for reallocating $7.5 million from the Buffalo Police Department by taking city police out of mental health-related call responses and minor traffic enforcement responsibilities. {snip}

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{snip} The number of people shot in Buffalo increased 90% in 2020 (355 victims) compared to 2019 (188 victims), as The Buffalo News first reported citing data from the city’s police department. Of those 255 people shot, nearly 88% were Black, though Black residents represent less than 40% of the city’s population, according to the outlet.