Cheektowaga's new supervisor has sleeve tattoos and a Dead Kennedys T-shirt, but no radical plans for town

For the first time in recent memory, a local elected official who has identified as a democratic socialist actually won a seat in a general election.

In Cheektowaga, of all places.

After a recount that increased his election night lead of 36 votes to a final count of 53 votes, Brian M. Nowak on Nov. 22 became the Cheektowaga supervisor-elect after a hard-fought and at times nasty campaign.

Nowak, 36, becomes the youngest town supervisor in Erie County and the first millennial to win the top political office in Buffalo’s suburbs.

In style and substance, Nowak is not your average Western New York politician. Sleeve tattoos cover his forearms. He rarely wears a tie, preferring punk rock T-shirts and faded flannel. Politically, he may be a Bernie Sanders guy, but visually, he presents more like John Fetterman, the senator from Pennsylvania with everyman vibes.

He’s happy to debate the intricacies of government but sounds proudest while talking about his days managing a 7-Eleven – after he was caught driving drunk.

“He always says that he’s ‘perfectly Cheektowaga’ and I think that’s true,” said Jessica Schuster, Nowak’s campaign manager. “As much as people try to wash that out of candidates, I look for that in people.”

India Walton displayed a raw authenticity when she upset Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown in the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary. So did the three progressive Buffalo Common Council hopefuls who battled the Erie County Democratic Committee in June, failing to win a single race against more-moderate candidates.

While those progressives took on the Democratic machine, Nowak decided to work within it. His left-leaning views and independence mean Nowak will probably never be considered a party loyalist, but he has managed to build a solid working relationship with Erie County Democratic Chairman Jeremy J. Zellner, who is often vilified by other candidates on the left.

“He realized that I am not a two-horned tailed devil, that I want to elect Democrats, that my door is open, and that he can rely on me and he can build a relationship with me,” Zellner said. “He realized quickly that there is a structure in place and if I work with them without selling out, so to speak, then I can probably get some things done for my community.”

Nowak first made a name for himself in politics as the lead local organizer for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign before he was elected to the Cheektowaga Town Board in 2017. But he said he doesn’t have radical plans for Cheektowaga.

“I don’t think people should be nervous and expect the apple cart to be upturned,” Nowak said. “No one’s going to have to be concerned that we’re going to nationalize grocery stores. It’s not happening. We’ve got a Town Board that’s going to be three Democrats and three Republicans and in a lot of ways we just have to get back to basics as a town.”

Focused on local issues

Nowak grew up in poverty in Buffalo’s Walden-Bailey neighborhood. He attended Seneca Vocational High School, Erie Community College and SUNY Buffalo State, studying history and graduating with a degree in education.

The night Nowak finished his schooling in 2011, he went out and celebrated, which he said was “a stupid idea in retrospect.” He was arrested for drunken driving and was convicted of misdemeanor driving while ability impaired as part of a plea agreement, he said.

Instead of getting a teaching job, Nowak went back to working at 7-Eleven and was manager of the store at Harlem and George Urban Boulevard. He said he improved the bookkeeping, managed 11 employees and significantly reduced theft.

“I’m kind of glad for that experience because it got me used to dealing with difficult characters and managing a budget and improving inventory,” he said.

It taught him another lesson, too.

“I learned that I’m one of those people that can’t drink,” Nowak said. “I’m nearly five years sober at this point, and I think it’s best for myself and the town that I don’t have a beer or a Jack and Coke or anything like that.”

The young father now puts that energy into researching small ways that socialist ideas can benefit local communities, rattling off examples like the internet system in Chattanooga, Tenn., a publicly run flour mill in North Dakota and municipal electric in Springville.

Nowak’s winning campaign formula involved knocking on thousands of doors, downplaying the Cold War connotation of the “socialist” label and staying away from divisive national issues. Instead, he says he won the support of the town’s conservative Democrats by heeding the adage “all politics is local.”

“One of the things I’ve mentioned to folks is, you might not want to send me to Congress, but I’m running for a job at the town,” Nowak said. “And what are the things I can control? When you’re talking about how to deal with responsible redevelopment, or the potential of a dual taxing system, or how to make the most efficient use of our equipment … I mean, that’s the stuff we should be talking about.”

Md Mohsin, a Democrat who lives on Markus Drive, said Nowak made himself visible in the growing immigrant community by appearing at a local mosque. He said Nowak, who worked in merchandising at the Pepsi bottling plant on Walden Avenue, tried to help Mohsin’s friend find a job there after the man moved to Buffalo.

“He sent me where he should apply and where he should go. This is a big help for any new people who come here with a family,” Mohsin said. “He tried to help. This is important.”

Mohsin, who serves as a Pine Hill volunteer firefighter with Nowak, said he is less concerned with party labels than he is with local issues like getting halal meals in the schools or making improvements at Cheektowaga Town Park.

“Political stuff, I’m not that involved with anybody. I’m not sure about his background, what’s happening with Republican or Democrat. But personally, for years, I have thought he is a great guy. This guy knows small town.”

Migrant controversy

Cheektowaga remains heavily Polish American but has changed in recent years into a more diverse mix that includes Black people moving from the city and a growing Southeast Asian immigrant population, including some who are Bangladeshi.

Democrats outnumber Republicans by a more than 2-to-1 margin, but political pros will note that many of those registered Dems – especially the older white ones – haven’t voted blue since the Reagan era.

Democrats may not have liked it, but those thorny national issues arrived in Cheektowaga this summer when two of the more than 600 migrants who came from the southern U.S. border were charged with sex crimes at a Dingens Street hotel.

Republicans put out ads accusing Nowak of “making Cheektowaga a sanctuary town.” Other ads urged people to vote for Nowak’s Republican opponent, fellow Council Member Michael Jasinski, because he supported “ending handouts for migrants.”

During this period, The News spoke to Nowak one day after a heated Town Board meeting in which his political opponents accused him of corruption and tried but failed to censure him.

Dressed in a Dead Kennedys T-shirt at a coffee shop in downtown Buffalo, Nowak seemed calm despite the circus-like atmosphere at the Town Board meeting the night before and the nasty tone the campaign was taking. He said he understood why Dingens Street residents were upset about the migrant situation.

“I talked to one of the guys just last night, he was worried about quality of life and neighborhood concerns,” Nowak said. “He criticized me at one meeting, he defended me at another. Reasonable guy, you know? And I wish they were all like that.”

When the migrant issue died down, Nowak’s campaign tried to inject some humor into the race, posting a blooper video on Facebook of Nowak messing up his lines while filming a political ad. Another popular social media post was a spoof of mega-star Taylor Swift’s popular “1989” album, with Nowak pictured instead of Swift.

Nowak’s appointment of Council Member Gerald Kaminski as his deputy supervisor may indicate his willingness to accept different viewpoints as he takes control of town government. Both men are Democrats, but they come from different eras.

“Jerry turned 80 in November and I’m 36,” Nowak said. “You talk to him about culture war stuff, that’s where, ‘Hey, I think you’re wrong.’ But I learn a lot from him, too.”

Nowak said he believes this sort of common ground can be found in the “nitty gritty” of town government – and by listening to residents who are not afraid to call him out.

“I’ve run two races in a town where someone like me, some folks would argue shouldn’t exist,” he said. “You meet folks one-on-one, you hear them out, you earn their trust. I’ve got my own ideas privately, of course, but I have 80,000 bosses, and it’s about doing some of the things they want to do.”