DemDaily: O’Connor Prevails in Pittsburgh Mayor’s Race
May 22, 2025
In Tuesday's Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Democratic mayoral primary, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor defeated progressive incumbent Ed Gainey, 52.83%-47.17%, in a hotly contested race watched nationally as a test case for the ideological mood of the voters.
The May 20 election, the first off-year primary battle in a top presidential swing state, pitted the party’s progressive and center-left wings against each other in the state's second-largest city.
Gainey previously served five terms in the Pennsylvania State House, representing many of Pittsburgh's majority-Black neighborhoods, including Homewood, East Liberty, East Hills, and Lincoln-Lemington.
He was elected Pittsburgh's first African-American mayor in 2021, defeating then two-term Mayor Bill Peduto in the Democratic primary. He went on to beat former Pittsburgh police detective and Republican nominee Tony Moreno, 70.8%-28.4%, in the general election in the overwhelmingly Democratic city that has not elected a Republican in 90 years.
Gainey was among a number of progressives serving the Pittsburgh area who won offices in recent years -- including Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-CD 12) in 2022, and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato in 2023.
| Pittsburgh is the seat of Allegheny County -- the most Democratic county in western Pennsylvania. Democrats account for 55.03% of registered voters compared to 29.11% registered Republicans, 11.71% registered Independents, and 4.14% registered with other parties. In 2020, Joe Biden won the county with 59.43%, the most votes for a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Harris all but matched his record with 59.40% in 2024. Trump won Pennsylvania by less than 2%. |
O’Connor has served as Allegheny County Controller since July 2022, having first been appointed to fill a vacancy by Governor Tom Wolf and elected to a full term in 2023. He was previously the Pittsburgh City Council member for District 5 for ten years.
O’Connor grew up in Pittsburgh's East End, the son of the much-beloved late Mayor and former Pittsburgh City Council President Bob O'Connor.
Although rare for a challenger to unseat an incumbent, this marks the second time in a row that voters have decided to make a change in city hall. Gainey's flip of Peduto in 2021 was the first time since the Great Depression.
The election outcome appears less an ideological battle than simply a superior, well-funded campaign run by O'Connor, who also capitalized on his family name and an anti-incumbent trend in this year's elections.
Rather than the questions dividing the national Democratic Party, the race focused on local issues, with O’Connor's campaign effectively hitting Gainey with $1 million worth of negative ads on his handling of city finances, affordable housing and public safety.
What is reflective of the national political narrative, however, is that in the post-pandemic era, and with the threat of Trump's massive spending cuts, voters are looking for leadership in navigating uncertainty around the economy.
In the November general election, O'Connor will face 2021 GOP nominee Tony Moreno, who won the May 20, 2025 Republican primary with 62% of the vote.
| “No matter who you support in this primary, we must now stand together as Democrats because we’ve only started this journey.” - Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor |
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Sources: New York Times, NBCNews, Penn Capital Star, PoliticalSource, Post-Gazette, KSTP, Axios
