NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Incumbent Councilman Justin Brannan declared victory Tuesday in his race against his GOP challenger Brian Fox for the contentious 43rd district.
Brannan, who represents a swath of southern Brooklyn including Bay Ridge, called the race for himself after two days of absentee ballot counting put him ahead of Fox.
The Democrat, who is vying to become the next council speaker, trailed Fox by roughly 250 votes on election night. Brannan on Tuesday railed against his opponent in statements and social media posts for spreading “misinformation” and “lies.”
“We won! Despite being up against a red wave driven by misinformation, lies, and one of the dirtiest campaigns southern Brooklyn has ever seen - we prevailed,” Brannan wrote on Twitter. “We refused to be defined by simplistic right or left labels. We refused to be defined by the falsehoods of my opponent.”
Fox conceded the race to Brannan Tuesday afternoon after running on a tough-on-crime platform. Fox pledged to fight state bail reform and support increased NYPD budgets and controversial “broken windows” policing.
"I want to thank the thousands of Brooklyn voters — of all parties — who supported my crime-fighting bid for New York City Council,” Fox said in a statement. “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.”
Related
