Nine mayorships in the 50 largest U.S. cities have shifted blue over the past decade, compared to only five that have adopted more centrist or Republican leaders.
The data shows Democrats are expanding control over the country’s urban centers, even as Republican mayors fight to regain power.
At the start of 2025, there were only nine Republicans holding mayorships in the country’s 50 largest cities.
On Tuesday, that number declined to just eight when Democrat John Ewing Jr. defeated incumbent Republican Jean Stothert in Omaha, Nebraska’s mayoral race.
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The few Republicans who have managed to clinch mayorships across the country in the past ten years are Karen Goh in Bakersfield, California, Jerry Dyer in Fresno, California, Francis Suarez in Miami, Bobby Dyer in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Mark Freeman in Mesa, Arizona, David Holt in Oklahoma City, Mattie Parker in Fort Worth, Texas, and Eric Johnson in Dallas.
Meanwhile, a disproportionate number of the country’s 50 largest cities have shifted blue over the past decade. While some races cited are nonpartisan, the party affiliation of candidates is taken into account for this analysis.
Omaha’s mayorship became the latest to flip from Republican to Democratic control this week. In 2024, Las Vegas Democrat Shelley Berkley won the city’s mayoral race, ousting independent Carolyn Goodman. Her victory shifted the Nevada hot spot blue. Also in 2024, Democrat Monroe Nichols clinched Tulsa’s mayorship, upsetting Republicans who had been in power since 2009.
In 2023, Democrat Donna Deegan won Jacksonville, Florida’s mayoral race by a 52% to 48%, flipping the seat blue after Republican mayor Lenny Curry could not seek reelection for a third term due to term limits. Also in 2023, Yemi Mobolade, an independent candidate, won Colorado Springs’ mayoral seat, defeating Republican Wayne Williams and ending an era of GOP rule in the Colorado city.
In 2020, Democrat Todd Gloria clinched a win in the San Diego mayoral election after the incumbent Republican mayor, Kevin Faulconer, could not run again due to term limits. In 2019, Democrat Mary-Ann Baldwin won the mayor’s election in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her victory marked a shift to the left as her predecessor, Nancy McFarlane, was a registered independent, although her mayorship was endorsed by local Democrats. The Raleigh seat is still held by Democrats.
In 2017, Democrat Tim Keller wrestled control of New Mexico’s largest city from the GOP to become Albuquerque’s next mayor. The city had been in Republican hands under Richard Berry’s leadership since 2009. In 2015, Democrat Joe Hogsett won the Indianapolis mayorship, flipping the seat blue.
While the data looks gloomy for Republicans, several of the people governing the country’s largest cities have in recent months joined the GOP or left the Democratic Party, signaling some critical U.S. urban centers could be shifting red. From Texas to Hawaii, five major cities are embracing more centrist or Republican policy makers.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson governed one of the largest cities in the country as a Democrat for over four years before shocking colleagues by joining the Republican Party in the fall of 2023. When Johnson switched his party, he became the only Republican mayor of one of the country’s ten largest cities. In 2020, Rick Blangiardi won the election as Honolulu’s mayor. He is an independent who has donated to the Republican Party in years past. His victory came after Kirk Caldwell, a Democrat, was Honolulu’s mayor from 2013 through 2021. In 2016, Karen Goh won the Bakersville, California, mayoral race. As a Republican, her victory signaled a slight shift to the right as her predecessor, longtime mayor Harvey Hall, appeared to hold nonpartisan leanings.
Several other blue city mayors have also relinquished their hold on the Democratic Party. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced in April that he would seek reelection as an independent candidate. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said in December he would run for Michigan governor as an independent candidate.
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This analysis examined mayoral elections starting in 2015 in the largest 50 U.S. cities by population, including the District of Columbia.
The cities covered were New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, Jacksonville, Honolulu, Austin, San Jose, Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Columbus, Charlotte, San Francisco, Louisville, Seattle, Denver, Nashville, Oklahoma City, El Paso, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Boston, Portland, Memphis, Detroit, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Albuquerque, Tuscon, Fresno, Sacramento, Mesa, Kansas City, Atlanta, Colorado Springs, Omaha, Raleigh, Virginia Beach, Long Beach, Miami, Oakland, Minneapolis, Tulsa, Bakersfield, and Tampa.
