Analyzing the voting data behind O'Connor's Pittsburgh mayoral primary win -- and Gainey's loss

[RandySF]

It took a little more than two hours for The Associated Press to call the mayoral race in Pittsburgh’s Democratic primary Tuesday night. But warning signs were flashing for Mayor Ed Gainey moments after the polls closed.

That’s when the county posted results from more than 17,000 mail-in ballots sent in by voters and processed by election workers during the course of the day. Gainey himself got about 35% of those votes — roughly the same share as he earned in his challenge of then-Mayor Bill Peduto four years before. But his rival, Corey O’Connor, improved on Peduto’s performance by 10 percentage points — a roughly 800-vote improvement.

Those early returns made one factor obvious from the outset: Unlike in 2021, when there were two other dark-horse Democrats challenging the incumbent, there was no one sharing space with O’Connor on Tuesday’s ballot to divide the opposition vote.

Tony Moreno, who ran in that Democratic primary and got 2,114 mail-in votes, is now a Republican (and will challenge O’Connor in the fall). But many of the areas where he performed well in 2021 swung over to O’Connor in his absence.



https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2025-05-21/pittsburgh-primary-election-data