Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey Defeated But Not Beaten: ‘We Shattered The Glass Ceiling’

A whirlwind of emotions swept through the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers’ building on Pittsburgh’s South Side on last Tuesday, as the city’s first Black mayor approached the podium to deliver a speech following the Democratic primary for mayor.

DJ Selecta had people dancing. People’s plates were full of food. Hugs were abundant.

Oftentimes, in the Black community, people know how to have a good time, whether or not the times are actually good. It’s how it is being a minority in the U.S., an oppressed one at that, especially in the current climate, the current presidential administration. An administration that is looking to set the country back to its old ways when it comes to race.

PITTSBURGH’S FIRST LADY, MICHELLE GAINEY (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)

Around 10:30 p.m. that night, everyone jumped out of their seats and gave Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey a standing ovation. Some shouted, “We love you, mayor!” as he appeared from seemingly nowhere. Also appearing was his wife, Pittsburgh’s First Lady, Michelle Gainey, who has stood by her husband’s side from Day 1.

The applause continued as Mayor Gainey took to the podium.

MORE THAN 150 PEOPLE CAME TO MAYOR ED GAINEY’S ELECTION NIGHT WATCH PARTY AT THE PITTSBURGH FEDERATION OF TEACHERS’ BUILDING, SOUTH SIDE, MAY 20.

On paper, everyone in the building knew the outcome. But to them, it didn’t matter. The 150 people there were giving Mayor Gainey his flowers for the positive things he’s done for the City of Pittsburgh. And for what he represents—the first Black mayor in Pittsburgh’s history. A man from Lincoln-Lemington, a Peabody High School graduate, who took success and education seriously, who took on Morgan State University in Baltimore and graduated with his degree, a man who worked for two mayors in Pittsburgh, a man who then ran his own campaign for state representative, and won, and won, and won again. A man who then said in January 2021 that he was going to do the unthinkable—run for mayor of Pittsburgh, and he won.

In life, you win some, you lose some. Mayor Gainey has won a lot. On May 20, he came up short in the vote of the Pittsburgh people. By a 52 to 47 percent margin, opponent Corey O’Connor, who is White, won the Democratic Primary Election for mayor. There are about 300,000 people in the City of Pittsburgh —roughly 60,000 voted in the Democratic mayoral primary. O’Connor won 31,482 votes, Mayor Gainey won 28,085 votes, a difference of 3,397 votes. There was no landslide. Both candidates were shown support.

SOME OF THE FAMILY OF ED GAINEY…

Mayor Gainey, in his concession speech, congratulated O’Connor on his victory. He then told the crowd, “Let me tell you what you’ve helped to build. You showed this whole city what it means to have a city for all. You got young, old, Black, White, Latino, Palestinian and Jew, Christian and Islamic, right here in this room. See, I’m grateful for you, because you showed how to build bridges of love, that regardless of what’s going on in the world…that you could love your neighbor, not by judgment, but by knowledge of who they are. And we have to be grateful for that.”

Pittsburgh is less than 23 percent Black these days. Black people are exiting the city, not necessarily because they want to, but because of the increasing cost of housing. It’s been well-documented that in neighborhoods like East Liberty, which, 20 years ago, was predominantly Black, thousands of African Americans were left no choice but to leave the area when apartment buildings were knocked down and “market-rate” apartments started popping up. Pittsburgh, at the turn of the 21st century, was about 28 percent Black. At the current rate, Blacks could find themselves down to  around 20 percent of the city’s population in just a few more years.

Still, Mayor Gainey was able to garner support from all races in the city over the past four years, which includes his initial candidacy in 2021. He stood true to his mantra of being a mayor for the entire city, heading out to White-dominated areas like Brookline, Beechview and Troy Hill, in addition to his usual Homewoods, Hill Districts and Beltzhoovers.

Mayor Gainey said what’s amazed him most about his campaign, or being mayor in general, was that he saw young Black males, “the ones that they have talked about from a negative, from the time since I was young because I was one of them,” Gainey said, “knocking on doors, in the political process, not killing one another, speaking truth to power.”

Mayor Gainey’s significance drew in African Americans who, before him, never thought it was possible for a Black person to become mayor in Pittsburgh.

“A loss is not final,” the mayor said on May 20. “See, they know there’s a new coalition on the rise, a coalition of people who ain’t scared of each other because of the religion that they serve or the color of their skin.”

Mayor Gainey added: “We didn’t put a crack in the glass ceiling. We shattered it.”

The mayor then asked all of his staff to join him on stage. About 20 people obliged. Mayor Gainey thanked them for their tireless work, and for their ability to stand tall and change the game “in the midst of multiple storms in order to move this city forward. Listen, there ain’t no regrets. There’s progress.”

As he came close to his final statements, Mayor Gainey then told the now-silent crowd: “Don’t be defeated. Don’t be sad. Be glad of the progress that we made. It would have been easy for me to bow to power. But it was more exhilarating to fight them for you.”

On Nov. 4, 2025, some five months from now, Pittsburgh will officially elect a new mayor. It will either be O’Connor or Tony Moreno, who handily won the Republican nomination. But Pittsburgh hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since the early 1930s, so it’s pretty much O’Connor’s race to lose.

Until January 2026, though, Pittsburgh’s mayor is Ed Gainey, whether people like it or not.

“I love you,” Mayor Gainey said, “and we ain’t done yet.”