Left-wing mayor of major blue city loses key primary race

Democratic Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey lost Tuesday’s mayoral primary election to the comparatively moderate Democratic Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, dealing a blow to the Democratic Party’s left flank.

Gainey, who took office in January 2022, conceded the race on Tuesday night after projected results showed O’Connor as the winner, according to The Associated Press. Gainey centered his campaign around priorities that included opposing the Trump administration, hiring more black people to the police force and making the city use only renewable energy by 2030.

“A loss is not final,” Gainey said in his concession speech Tuesday night before stating that left-wing politics are not going anywhere. “See, they know there’s a new coalition on the rise.”

Thank you, Pittsburgh. We built this campaign with and for the people of this city, neighborhood by neighborhood.

I’m proud to be your Democratic nominee for Mayor. I’m ready to get to work, and I’m grateful to have you with me as we take the next steps forward, together. pic.twitter.com/cjPXNKwW47

— Corey O’Connor (@CoreyOConnorpa) May 21, 2025

“We didn’t put a crack in the glass ceiling; we shattered it,” Gainey said.

The mayor’s term ends in January 2026 after the November mayoral election, in which O’Connor will run against Republican Tony Moreno, a retired police officer, according to the AP. O’Connor’s primary victory almost guarantees he will win the general election in November.

The son of a former Pittsburgh mayor, O’Connor attacked Gainey’s record on public safety, spending and other issues, his campaign website shows. O’Connor argued that Gainey brought the city toward a financial crisis and emphasized frequent turnover at the police department, which lost hundreds of officers and saw five different chiefs in recent years, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

O’Connor also said crucial city vehicles such as ambulances continue to break down and need to be replaced, the AP reported.

Some of the starkest differences between the two candidates had to do with law enforcement, campaign statements show. Gainey’s campaign boasted that he “hired the city’s first unarmed community service aides” to respond to non-violent situations normally meant for police and that he would recruit more social workers to handle some police functions. O’Connor, meanwhile, pushed for hiring more neighborhood police officers and funding resources for police to better handle emergencies.

O’Connor raised three times as much cash as Gainey ahead of the election, the Post-Gazette reported.

“We built this campaign with and for the people of this city, neighborhood by neighborhood,” O’Connor posted on X Tuesday night. “I’m proud to be your Democratic nominee for Mayor. I’m ready to get to work, and I’m grateful to have you with me as we take the next steps forward, together.”

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, Tuesday night brought a win for the far left as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner won his Democratic primary race against a challenger who embraced tough-on-crime rhetoric. Krasner’s primary victory means the leftist reform-minded prosecutor will most likely win a third term in the strongly Democratic city.

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