BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Zeneta Everhart defeated India Walton in the Democratic primary for the Masten District Buffalo Common Council seat. She declared victory around 10 p.m. on Tuesday night.

She finished the race with 1,525 votes, good for 66.68% in a landslide victory.

“When I decided to do this, I told my team, that we will not, under any circumstances, run a negative campaign,” Everhart said in her victory speech. “This campaign was going to be built on community, it was going to be built on my record, and it was going to be built on the people who live in this community.”

Everhart is the mother of 22-year-old Zaire Goodman, who was wounded in the Tops mass shooting in 2022. At the time, she was working as an aide for State Senator Tim Kennedy, a role she has been in for six years. She said that if she wins the general election, she will leave that role.

Since the mass shooting, Everhart has advocated for gun reform in both Albany and Washington, D.C., including testifying before Congress in June 2022. She has also spent time at the White House with President Joe Biden.

“I’m truly, truly excited to just get ready to do the work, that’s it. That’s all this is about,” Everhart said. “This is about fixing our community and just showing people that there is hope. I don’t want people to lose hope.”

Endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Everhart is running on a platform of improving housing as well as overall quality of life both in the Masten District and across the city. She also works to assist single mothers, which includes her work running the Single Moms Club, which assists single moms and their children. She also founded Zeneta and Zaire’s Book Club, which has stored thousands of books on diversity and inclusion at Villa Maria College.

She said that she is ready to make change in City Hall.

Meanwhile, Walton will be forced to go back to the drawing board following her second loss on the political landscape in the past two years following a loss to Byron Brown in the 2021 Buffalo mayoral election, where he ran a write-in campaign after Walton won the primary.

“Polls are now closed and the results are prettymuch in and it looks like we are once again going to be graceful in defeat,” Walton said in her concession speech. “I think Zeneta is going to do a great job.”

If Everhart wins the general election on Nov. 7, she will be the first woman to hold the Masten District seat in a decade. It is unclear if she will face a challenger.

“I’ve said it before, what is missing in government in our city is a woman’s voice,” Everhart said.

Political analyst Jack O’Donnell joined News 4 at 10 on Tuesday to discuss Everhart’s win and the rest of the night’s results. You can watch that interview below.

News 4 has been told that the district, which is made up of a large portion of Buffalo’s East Side, is around 70% Democratic. The district has approximately 30,000 residents. The winner of the general election will replace Councilman Ulysees Wingo, who chose not to run.

Several projects are set to take place there. Part of the Kensington Project will take place in the district as well as millions of dollars in state and federal funding coming into the neighborhoods following both the mass shooting and the December blizzard. The Northland Workforce Training Center is also located within the district.

You can watch Everhart’s full victory speech above.

News 4 is your local election headquarters. You can see the full results of every race across Western New York by clicking here.