SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) — After cruising to victory last night, County Executive Ryan McMahon summed up his immediate excitement with two simple words: “LET’S GO!”
McMahon beat Democratic challenger Bill Kinne by 23 percentage points yesterday, receiving 61.82% of the vote to Kinne’s 38.01%. He’ll lead the county’s highest office for another four years with one subject at the forefront of his policy goals: the Micron plant in Clay.
Before getting to the token semiconductor mention, McMahon expressed gratitude to his supporters, saying “I want to thank the voters of Onondaga county for allowing me to be your county executive for the last four years, and decisively delivering a mandate for the next four.” That word “mandate” became a theme for the rest of the night as McMahon elaborated on his plans for the next four years.
“This mandate is not about me, it’s about you. It’s a mandate for partnerships. It’s a mandate to try and find common ground, but to never lead from behind. It’s a mandate to change the psychology of the community, to believe that we are worthy of good things,” McMahon said. He eventually finished with the line the crowd was waiting for, “It’s a mandate to build semiconductors.”
McMahon’s constituents are just as excited about the project as he is.
“Micron, that’s going to be the best thing for our area up here. The amount of jobs that that’s going to produce, to not only lift the community, but draw people in as well. We’re going to get a lot of talent coming in from out of state to fill in these jobs and get houses up here,” said Ben Gruber, a McMahon supporter. Gruber continued to say “ I think he’s the right man for the job, he’s got a great resume and I think he’s going to get it done.”
McMahon’s comments to NCC News fall in lockstep with those of his supporters. When we asked about why he thinks he was reelected overwhelmingly, McMahon said “We went through a 100-year global health pandemic, we got through that. We had the vision that we could compete and that we are fundamentally worthy of good things in this community, and we’re aspirational, and we made investments and took risks and because of that, we are starting to see the economic benefits of those investments.”
Those investments are what he campaigned on, and what he’s pushing forward with for the next four years. McMahon ended his speech in the crowded Embassy Suites ballroom by saying this- “Onondaga County is back and globally relevant… The Onondaga County comeback is now… our Erie Canal moment is here, and we will meet that moment together.”
