Mayoral election in Buffalo, New York (2025)
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← 2021
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| 2025 Buffalo elections |
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| Election dates |
| Filing deadline: April 3, 2025, April 10, 2025, & May 27, 2025 |
| Primary election: June 24, 2025 General election: November 4, 2025 |
| Election stats |
| Offices up: Mayor |
| Total seats up: 1 |
| Other municipal elections |
| U.S. municipal elections, 2025 |
The city of Buffalo, New York, is holding a general election for mayor on November 4, 2025. A primary was scheduled for June 24, 2025. The filing deadline for the primary was April 3, 2025, the opportunity to ballot filing deadline was April 10, 2025, and the independent candidate filing deadline was May 27, 2025.
As of 2025, Buffalo does not have term limits for the position of mayor. Mayors serve a four-year term. The Republican primary election was canceled because James Gardner ran unopposed. For information about the Democratic primary in this election, click on the link below:
Elections
Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.
Candidates and results
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Mayor of Buffalo
Sean Ryan, James Gardner, and Michael Gainer are running in the general election for Mayor of Buffalo on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Sean Ryan (D / Working Families Party) | |
| James Gardner (R) | ||
| Michael Gainer (Independent) | ||
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Garnell Whitfield (Independent)
- Christopher Scanlon (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Mayor of Buffalo
Sean Ryan defeated incumbent Christopher Scanlon, Garnell Whitfield, Rasheed Wyatt, and Anthony Tyson-Thompson in the Democratic primary for Mayor of Buffalo on June 24, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sean Ryan | 46.4 | 12,439 |
 | Christopher Scanlon | 35.1 | 9,430 | |
| Garnell Whitfield | 8.2 | 2,204 | ||
 | Rasheed Wyatt | 7.7 | 2,066 | |
| Anthony Tyson-Thompson | 2.4 | 642 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 51 | ||
| Total votes: 26,832 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- James A. W. McLeod (D)
- Michael Gainer (D)
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. James Gardner advanced from the Republican primary for Mayor of Buffalo.
Working Families Party primary election
The Working Families Party primary election was canceled. Sean Ryan advanced from the Working Families Party primary for Mayor of Buffalo.
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: New York elections, 2025
May 20, 2025
June 24, 2025
November 4, 2025
Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses
Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
No candidate in this race has completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Ballotpedia is seeking 100 percent participation so voters can learn more about all the candidates on their ballots.
You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:
Candidate profiles
This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.
Party: Democratic Party, Working Families Party
Incumbent: No
Political Office:
- New York State Senate (Assumed office: 2021)
- New York State Assembly (2011-2021)
Biography: Ryan received a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Fredonia and a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. His career experience included working as an attorney.
Show sources
Sources: Sean Ryan Campaign Website, "FIXING THE DAMN ROADS," accessed May 20, 2025; Sean Ryan Campaign Website, "CREATING A SAFER BUFFALO," accessed May 20, 2025; Sean Ryan Campaign Website, "GETTING OUR FISCAL HOUSE IN ORDER," accessed May 20, 2025; Sean Ryan Campaign Website, "Meet Sean," accessed May 29, 2025
Mayoral partisanship
Buffalo has a Democratic mayor. As of September 2025, 66 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 23 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, three are independents, five identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and two mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Help inform our readers
Take our candidate survey
- See also: Survey
At Ballotpedia, we believe that everyone deserves meaningful, reliable, trustworthy information about their candidates. We also know that good information—especially at the local level—is hard to find. That's why Ballotpedia created Candidate Connection.
We ask all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Our survey helps voters better understand how their candidates think about the world and how they intend to govern—information they need to feel confident they're picking the best person for the role.
If you are a candidate, take our survey here. Or you can ask a candidate to take the survey by sharing the link with them.
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Candidates, share endorsements here. Readers, share endorsements you know about here.
About the city
- See also: Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a city in Erie County, New York. As of 2020, its population was 278,349.
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Buffalo uses a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body while the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.[1]
Demographics
The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic Data for Buffalo, New York | ||
|---|---|---|
| Buffalo | New York | |
| Population | 278,349 | 20,201,249 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 40 | 47,123 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White | 47.1% | 62.3% |
| Black/African American | 35.2% | 15.4% |
| Asian | 6.3% | 8.6% |
| Native American | 0.5% | 0.4% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.1% | 0% |
| Other (single race) | N/A | 8.6% |
| Multiple | 5.3% | 4.7% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 12.2% | 19.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate | 85.7% | 87.2% |
| College graduation rate | 28.6% | 37.5% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income | $39,677 | $71,117 |
| Persons below poverty level | 28.3% | 13.6% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020). | ||
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
See also
| Buffalo, New York | New York | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
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External links
Footnotes
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