India Walton Makes Her Closing Argument

India B. Walton kept introducing herself to voters answering her knocks on doors up and down Masten Avenue.

“I’m India Walton – the Democratic nominee for mayor,” she said while handing out campaign literature on a night earlier this month.

It turned out, however, few introductions were necessary.

“I know who you are,” residents replied to the woman on their front stoops.

Since defeating incumbent Mayor Byron W. Brown in the June Democratic primary, Walton has gone from “India Who?” to universally recognized on the streets of Buffalo. She is on television, in mailers arriving along Masten and throughout the city, and is making her case at town meetings.

On this night, the candidate moved past introductions to pleas for votes. In this primarily Black neighborhood, Walton seemed connected to her potential constituents, as did Brown when elected the city’s first Black mayor in 2005.