NYC Councilman Justin Brannan defeats GOP challenger after nail-biting absentee ballot count
Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan eked out a victory in his reelection race Tuesday after a trove of absentee ballots pushed him over the edge to defeat Republican challenger Brian Fox.
Brannan, a first-term Democrat representing Bay Ridge, was trailing Fox by about 250 votes on Election Night Nov. 2, stirring anxiety in the councilman’s circles, especially considering he’s among a handful of members vying to become Council speaker next year.
But after nearly 2,000 absentee ballots were added to the mix Tuesday, Brannan closed the gap and led Fox by more than 400 votes — “beyond the threshold for a hand recount and larger than the number of ballots remaining to count,” according to his campaign.
In a victory statement, Brannan railed against Fox, accusing the pro-Trump Republican of spreading “misinformation” and “lies,” including by seeking to get more than 500 absentee ballots tossed out from the count on a dubious auspice of fraud.
“We refused to be defined by the falsehoods of my opponent, trusting the voters to know the courage of our convictions,” said Brannan, a former punk rock guitarist who considers himself a “get s--t done” Democrat. “We made hard choices, but good and necessary choices even when they were not convenient or popular, and again trusted the voters to see the truth and vote to keep our community moving forward.”
Despite his previous fraud musings, Fox conceded the race for the 43rd Council District late Tuesday.
“Although we came up short in the end, we managed to come within one percentage point of victory, something none of the so-called experts predicted,” Fox said in a statement. “This race made me believe even more strongly that change is needed within the City Council if we want to restore the quality of life New Yorkers expect. And as far as Brian Fox and the Republican movement in Brooklyn is concerned, we’re just getting started.”
With his reelection in the bag, Brannan is expected to switch gears to the speaker’s race, which is in full swing, with at least seven other councilmembers running for the coveted top spot.
During this month’s Somos conference in Puerto Rico, a gabfest for New York politicos, Brannan critics were voicing skepticism about his viability as speaker, considering how much he struggled to just get reelected.
But Brannan has maintained that he can pull off the speakership and said in a Zoom forum on Monday night that he sees the position as a platform for empowering other members.
“I would want to work with members to create a funding rubric that is fair and devoid of favoritism or political retribution,” Brannan said. “The idea would be to create an objective, data-driven public formula to decide how discretionary and capital money is disbursed in a way that first and foremost prioritizes historically underfunded districts.”
Brannan’s race was among a handful of Nov. 2 contests that remained too close to call after Election Day.
Another one was the battle for Queens’ 19th Council District, where Republican candidate Vickie Paladino declared victory late Tuesday — one of two previously Democratic seats in the chamber that the GOP flipped in this election cycle.
“We can confirm that out election night victory will stand,” Paladino’s campaign said. “We now look forward to the transition and beginning the hard work of delivering on our agenda.”
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