Corey O’Connor wins Democratic mayoral primary
“Your voices and calls for accountable leadership and growth have been heard in this Democratic primary,” O'Connor said.
Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor defeated incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey in Pittsburgh’s May 20 Democratic primary. With nearly 100% of the votes counted, O’Connor claimed 31,254 votes, or roughly 53% of the total vote, while Gainey had 27,907 votes, or about 47% of the vote.
O’Connor will face Republican Tony Moreno, a retired police officer, in the general election. Moreno beat Thomas West in the GOP primary. No Republican has served as the city’s mayor since 1933.
In O’Connor’s victory speech, given shortly before 11 p.m., he thanked his family, supporters and Pittsburgh voters.
“Your voices and calls for accountable leadership and growth have been heard in this Democratic primary,” he said.
O’Connor also thanked Gainey for his service to Pittsburgh, saying, “His love for this city has never been in doubt.”
After calling for unity among Democrats, O’Connor, whose late mother was Jewish, highlighted a theme that resonated throughout his campaign: It’s time for the city to deliver for its residents.
“Deliver a police force that is large enough to support our residents, and have a chief of police,” O’Connor said. “Enough housing so that anyone can afford to live here in Pittsburgh and support businesses of all sizes so that we can grow and create wealth all over our city.”
After the race was called for O’Connor, Gainey offered words of congratulation, but those words were met with scattered boos from those in attendance at his campaign headquarters. The mayor pushed back.
“[We’re] not going to spread hate. We have enough hate in this city,” he said.
Instead, Gainey highlighted the coalition of supporters built during his time in office.
“You showed this whole city what it means to have a city for all,” he said. “You have young, old, Black, white, Latino, Palestinian and Jew, Christian and Islamist, right here in this room. I’m grateful to you because you showed how to build bridges of love.”
He urged his supporters to be grateful for the progress he said was made during his term.
“It would’ve been easy for me to bow down to power,” he said, “but it was more exhilarating to fight them for you.”
Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor said his 2021 election “didn’t put a crack in the glass ceiling”; instead, he said, “we shattered it.”
In addition to selecting Democratic and Republican candidates for mayor, Pittsburghers also voted in favor of two referendums meant to blunt efforts of groups like Not On Our Dime Pittsburgh from introducing referendums calling for the city to boycott Israel.
The first referendum question asked voters to approve a supplement to the city’s Home Rule Charter that would prohibit discrimination based on “race, religion, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or expression, disability, place of birth, national origin or association or affiliation with any nation or foreign state in conducting business with the city.”
The second question asked voters if a new section should be added to the Home Rule Charter prohibiting the amendment process “to add duties or obligations beyond the lawful scope of the city’s authority.”
Neither Bryan Neft nor Ilan Zur — two Jewish judicial candidates — were elected to the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas.
Following the election, Beacon Coalition, a non-partisan organization that operates to protect the rights and well-being of Jews in the United States, posted on Facebook that it was “celebrating big primary wins across Pittsburgh. Thank you to everyone who contributed, volunteered and voted!”
State Rep. Abigail Salisbury, who endorsed O’Connor during the campaign, congratulated him on winning the primary and called for unity now that the race is over.
“Everyone who disagrees with a Jew is not an antisemite, just like everyone who disagrees with a Black person is not a racist,” she wrote on Facebook. “Everyone who disagrees with a Democrat is not a MAGA. I hope that we all, myself included, try to focus less on the drama and fighting and more on the work of building a better place for everyone. Let’s speak our truth but do the work too.”
Pittsburgh City Councilmember Barb Warwick, a Gainey supporter, thanked the mayor on Facebook, saying it had been an honor to fight with him for a “kinder, more equitable city.”
“It wasn’t our night,” she wrote. “But tomorrow we get up and keep doing the work to protect and uplift our most vulnerable residents and build a Pittsburgh for all.”
Pennsylvania’s general election is Tuesday, Nov. 4. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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