Fox leads Brannan on election night
Incumbent councilmember believes absentee ballots will push him forward
BY JESSICA PARKS
Republican candidate Brian
Fox is leading incumbent City
Councilmember Justin Brannan
by 255 votes for the District
43 city council seat as of
last night’s unoffi cial election
results — though the district
is still waiting for at least 1,456
returned absentee ballots to be
counted in the coming days.
“We are feeling phenomenal,
I mean it is just a great feeling
here, we had confi dence all
along, you know we got a lot of
great feedback from our polling
throughout the entire campaign,”
Liam McCabe, Fox’s
campaign spokesperson told
Brooklyn Paper. “We knew the
numbers were there and we
were just patient and waited for
them to come and they came in
the way we thought they were
going to come in.”
Both campaigns said they
expect to see victory when absentee
ballots are counted —
with Brannan’s spokesperson
arguing that there were 802
more Democratic absentee ballots
over Republican-registered
ballots as of Election Day and
Fox’s spokesperson said their
edge lies with the military ballots
they’ve pushed for.
“We feel very strong, you
know we’ve got some absentee
and some military ballots
we campaign hard for them
as well, and we expect to win
them as they say the paper usually
breaks the way of the election,”
McCabe said.
“We are confi dent that
when all the votes are counted,
Councilmember Justin Brannan
COURIER L 10 IFE, NOVEMBER 5-11, 2021
will be re-elected despite
a nationally turbulent atmosphere.
Just as in 2020, absentee
votes will make up the margin
of victory, and Democrats
have a massive 1,083 to 281 lead
with absentees as of Tuesday,”
Daniel de Groot said in a statement.
“This Democratic edge
will only grow as more ballots
are returned — which is why
we are confi dent we expect to
overwhelmingly win on paper
and prevail once every vote is
counted.”
The Democratic councilmember,
who was rumored
to be in the circuit for Council
Speaker, declared victory
around 10 pm on Tuesday night
at a jubilant watch party at Bay
Ridge’s the Wicked Monk when
it showed he was in the lead,
thanking voters for taking a
step against hate when voting
against his opponent.
“It became about love over
hate, it became about truth
over lies, it became about facts
over fear and hope over despair,
and I couldn’t have done
it without you guys,” Brannan
told the crowd at the Third Avenue
pub. “So it is really, really
meaningful to have this victory,
we have come so far, we
all know that there is so much
more to do, but we have really
come so far together.”
But the race took a turn
around 11:30 pm when Fox shot
past Brannan by 21 votes, and
within the following hour that
margin increased to 255 votes
with 98 percent of precincts
reporting— showing Fox with
12,145 votes and Brannan with
11,890 votes.
Despite the highly contentious
atmosphere of the race thus
far, McCabe said Fox will put all
hard feelings aside and gladly
work with the councilmember
to ensure a smooth transition if
the offi cial results come in Fox’s
favor.
“Brian is going to be the
councilman for everyone, and
I am sure they will reach out
soon and talk and hopefully
go through a very good transition,”
McCabe said, “because,
at the end of the day, it’s about
the needs of the constituents
and they really come fi rst.”
Brannan similarly said during
his election night speech
that what happens during election
season stays in election
season and all constituents
are welcome to his offi ce or to
reach out for assistance no matter
their political affi liation.
“In my offi ce, anyone that
comes into our offi ce gets
helped, we don’t ask if they are
Democrat or Republican. Tomorrow
morning, we are not
going to ask if they voted for us
or not, we don’t care, it doesn’t
matter,” Brannan said. “We are
here to help, that’s our job, it’s
my job to serve. So tomorrow,
we put politics aside and we go
back to work.”
ELECTION 2021
Brian Fox (right) leads Councilmember Justin Brannan by 255 votes after
election night, with absentees still on the line. Courtesy of campaigns
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