JUSTIN SONDEL

News Staff Reporter

ELECTION 2025

Three candidates to become the next mayor of Buffalo are ramping up their campaigns with less than two months until the general election.

State Sen. Sean Ryan, who emerged from a field that at one point had 11 candidates to win the Democratic primary in June, becoming the party nominee, is the clear favorite in a city with a heavy enrollment advantage for Democrats. But to become the first elected mayor to occupy the second floor at City Hall since former Mayor Byron Brown began his historic five-term run, he will have to fend off Republican James Gardner and independent Michael Gainer, who is running on the Restore Buffalo line he created.

Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo, said that

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