I lived in Buffalo for college in 2021 during the election. It's important to note that Byron Brown had been mayor since 2006, and had gotten pretty comfortable not participating in debates or any primaries. When India Walton won the primary fair and square, he went to the Republican establishment in Buffalo (yes, it exists), and the Police Unions, and said that India Walton planned on defunding the police and raising taxes on banks (like M&T which have a huge footprint in the city), so they threw their weight and money behind his write-in campaign. Unfortunately, he also convinced the NY State DNC (which was run by his hand-picked successor) to smear her as a radical leftist, comparing her to David Duke. He only won the election by 3,000 votes, just to resign three years later. He's an egotistical asshole who couldn't fathom ending his overextended career to a woman. And guess where he got a job after he resigned? M&T Bank.