A campaign website for Jared M. Kraham, the mayor of Binghamton, has been updated to announce his campaign for reelection. A Republican, he focused on quality-of-life issues in his first term.

“Mayor Jared Kraham gets things done — rebuilding and revitalizing Binghamton,” the updated website read. “That’s why he’s running for re-election.”

Kraham and his campaign have yet to release a statement, and a campaign spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

In his first term at the helm of city government, Kraham’s administration focused heavily on the quality-of-life issues he campaigned on. He moved in 2022 to enforce an amended version of a city law targeting properties deemed nuisances for closure. At the time, he said that vigorous oversight would limit criminal activity and improve entire neighborhoods.

In December 2023, Kraham announced the settlement of a lawsuit his corporation counsel brought against Isaac Anzaroot, a downstate landlord accused of allowing his properties to deteriorate into blight. Under the court-approved agreement, the city took control of 26 of Anzaroot’s properties, and he was prohibited from owning real estate in Binghamton for 15 years.

“Vacant, neglected buildings like these hurt entire neighborhoods, frustrating residents who live nearby and making our community less safe,” Kraham said in a press release late last month announcing a wave of demolitions.

In October 2023, after the release of a damning 900-page city-funded report on the state of Binghamton’s crumbling railroad infrastructure, Kraham announced that railroad giant Norfolk Southern had agreed to begin repairs on seven of its bridges. The project was completed about a year later.

“Mayor Jared Kraham is widely popular because he’s focused on the issues that matter to Binghamton residents,” said Benji Federman, the Broome County Republican chair. “He’s delivered on critical housing projects, invested in public safety and improved quality of life in our neighborhoods.”

“Mayor Jared Kraham is the respected community leader we need to keep moving Binghamton forward,” he added.

The deputy mayor to his predecessor, Republican Rich David, Kraham defeated Joe Burns, then a Democratic city councilmember, in 2021 with 53.3 percent of the vote. Kraham’s election, which made him Binghamton’s youngest mayor, was far from assured, however.

According to figures from the Broome County Board of Elections, Democrats comprised 48 percent of all registered voters in November 2021, compared to Republicans at just around 20.7 percent and those unaffiliated at 23 percent. Voter turnout was 32.35 percent.

“The data tells a clear story — we built a winning coalition from bipartisan and independent support,” Kraham said in his inaugural address. “Voters cast their ballots based not on party, but on principles and ideas — and that should give us hope.”

The most recently available statistics, accurate to February 2024, show similar numbers: Democrats at 46.3 percent, Republicans at 21.9 percent and unaffiliated voters at 28.7 percent.

Kraham will face at least one challenger: Miles Burnett, a Democrat who previously worked in the office of State Sen. Lea Webb ’04. Burnett announced his candidacy earlier this month and held a launch party on Tuesday.

Arriving in office with a friendly City Council, Kraham faced a setback in 2023 when Democrats won six of the council’s seven seats — the seventh was tied between Republican incumbent Philip Strawn and Democrat Rebecca Rathmell.

After a disagreement over who had the authority to fill the vacancy — the mayor or the newly elected City Council — Kraham sued the council, its president and its clerk in Broome County Court. A judge ruled that the council had the statutory authority but that the appointment must be of the same party as their predecessor.

In August 2024, Kraham’s administration formally rejected the factual findings and conclusions of a report from the New York attorney general that found excessive police force was used in the Jan. 1, 2023 arrest of Hamail Waddell, a Black-Asian man. An attorney for the city wrote: “The City’s position is that the officers acted lawfully and will defend that position.”

Waddell was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge in December 2024, following a two-day bench trial in City Court.

Kraham, a lifelong Binghamton-area resident, graduated from Syracuse University in 2013 with degrees in digital and broadcast journalism and political science. His late father, Jeffrey, served as county executive from 1997 to 2004.