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On the debate stage, Syracuse mayoral candidate Thomas Babilon mirrors a courtroom cadence — stiff-backed, with his hands on his hips, drilling his four opponents with anecdotes of current Mayor Ben Walsh’s “failures.”

During his days off the podium, he rides his bike wearing a polo shirt, jeans and a pair of Vans to his job at the Hiscock Legal Aid Society as a senior appellate attorney, where he gives legal advice to low-income families in Onondaga County.

As Syracuse’s Republican candidate for mayor, Babilon is campaigning on a rigid platform of reducing crime, cutting “wasteful” spending and easing regulations on Syracuse businesses.

“Seldom do you hear people say, ‘Syracuse is a great place. This is someplace I want to live,’” Babilon said. “We want to make Syracuse a place where people want to live, not where they want to leave.”

While he promotes policy-driven rhetoric on stage, Babilon presents a people-focused persona when facing the public. When canvassing with his fiancée, Shelia Bullock, and his blended-family crew of kids and stepkids, they connect with residents across party affiliations over the city’s needs, he said.

Babilon lost the 2021 Republican mayoral primary to Janet Bowman, after receiving only about 33% of the vote. This spring, the GOP selected him as the party’s uncontested candidate in the primary election.

He’s been involved in city politics since his move from Florida to Syracuse in 2003, he said. He worked as a City Hall lawyer from 2008 to 2018 under Stephanie Miner’s Democratic administration, and briefly under Walsh.

During his time as corporate counsel for the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development, Babilon said he noticed the city doesn’t often work “in favor of small businesses” with undefined zoning regulations that have closed down neighborhood mechanics and pizzerias because of “unlawful” code enforcement.

“It would almost rise to the point of harassment,” Babilon said. “Some of the things they would interpret, like city rules or city ordinances, were really not in favor of the people or small businesses.”

This, along with other problems he attributes to the city’s current leadership, is what inspired his run for mayor.

“I just want to help people,” Babilon said. “I think I’ll be in a better position to help people as mayor of Syracuse.”

As a sharp critic of the Walsh administration, Babilon’s campaign promises improvement in several areas of the city, including affordable housing, increasing agency to Syracuse police officers and improving resources for the homeless, such as privacy shelters.

Babilon has engaged in heated arguments on stage, like his one with Democratic opponent and current Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens at the final mayoral forum hosted by Central Current.

If elected, Babilon said he plans in his first months in office to void the Walsh-era stipulation that diverts the Syracuse Police Department from responding to mental health crises. The lack of supplemental on-call social workers that Owens “promised” has led to an increase in substance abuse and unsafe neighborhoods, he said.

“If you were to tell someone that lives in any place other than Syracuse that this is the reality of our public safety today, they wouldn’t believe you,” Babilon said. “We really need to work better on community policing. It needs to be, it’s definitely gonna be part of my administration.”

Babilon would increase the number of current SPD officers from 385 to 424, a number the city is budgeted for, he said. He will also stop enforcing Walsh’s regulation that SPD officers must live within city limits for at least five years.

Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor

Thomas Babilon speaks at a debate hosted by WCNY on Oct. 14.

Babilon is also an outspoken opponent of rising taxes imposed by the city’s annual budget, which he protested at the Syracuse Common Council’s 2025-2026 budget public hearing in April.

In his vision for mayor, he often exemplifies what he sees at his home in the Hawley-Green neighborhood to form his policies. He recalls instances of crime near his block, including when a 15-year-old girl was kidnapped at knifepoint on Oct. 16.

Before Babilon began campaigning earlier this year, his life was filled with weekend adventures like camping in the Adirondacks, which he and Bullock document on their Instagram account.

Babilon, a self-described “Dead Head” with a love for rock bands and nature, said he feels most like himself when he’s traveling across the state in his camper van.

“That was our life before politics, you know,” Babilon said. “That’s what I really love to do, being outdoors, hiking.”

While at times Babilon reminisces about the times their days weren’t spent guest-starring on local podcasts and knocking on over 4,000 doors, Bullock feels her fiancé’s dedication to the race has changed him for the better.

“I told him, ‘Even if you don’t win this, you’ve won a new sequence of you,’” Bullock said. “It’s been the people that have encouraged and given him the energy to go out every day and prepare him for the role as mayor.”

Babilon faces a challenging race against his fellow candidates in a city that hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1997. Despite this, he’s confident in his chances of winning with bipartisan support.

“A lot of these issues are things that nobody should be disagreeing on,” Babilon said. “If you talk to almost every Democrat in the city, depending on where they live, they’re going to tell you, we need better public safety, and that it’s gone downhill.”

Juanita Perez, a “life-long” Democrat, former city attorney and former candidate for New York state legislature, endorses Babilon not as a Republican, but as the “most qualified candidate.” To Perez, Babilon is a figure of objective legal expertise and locality the city needs.

“I, as a Democrat, would never endorse, especially today, the Republican agenda,” Perez said. “I do endorse hard-working, committed public servants who demonstrate high integrity, character and a willingness to do the right thing. That’s Tom Babilon.”

As a centrist, Babilon often shies away from contemporary Republican “culture wars,” instead focusing on a fiscally conservative agenda, Perez said. While she said she doesn’t agree with Babilon on all of his views, she commends his commitment to helping Syracuse residents — something she says she doesn’t see in the Walsh administration.

“He lives it, he sees it, he understands it, he advocates for it,” Perez said. “He comes from the realistic way of life in the city of Syracuse. He’s not going to sell us out for 10 Minute press conferences or future political aspirations. He is someone that is doing this for the betterment of the citizens of the city of Syracuse.”

Babilon said he’s also received the support of Democratic primary candidates and Common Councilors Chol Majok and Pat Hogan, although neither of them have publicly come forward with an endorsement. Hogan told The Daily Orange he doesn’t endorse any one candidate.

Even with a campaign budget of $21,300 and an Onondaga County Republican voter registration of about 27%, Babilon remains confident he has a shot at winning the election.

“​​If we get a strong Republican turnout, which we’ve been trying very hard to do, and we pull the democrats that we anticipate we’re going to pull, and we pull the independents that we anticipate we’re going to pull, I think we’re going to win,” Babilon said.

Babilon isn’t just anticipating a mayoral win, but also a new daughter with Bullock come December. And whether he wins the race or not, Babilon and Bullock remain certain of one thing — they won’t just be returning to “van life.”

“I don’t think his mission ends on Nov. 4,” Bullock said. “You will know and hear of Thomas Babilon doing many other things in the community, and he’ll run again.”

Published on October 29, 2025 at 12:16 am
Contact Brenne: bsheeh03@syr.edu