A view of the Pittsburgh skyline from the Three Rivers Trail, located along the city's North Shore area.

Democrat Corey O’Connor will be the next mayor of Pittsburgh, according to media reports, defeating Republican challenger Tony Moreno.

O'Connor is the Allegheny County controller and a former Pittsburgh city council member. He's the son of former mayor Bob O'Connor, who died while in office in 2006.

Moreno is a retired city police officer and former U.S. Army paratrooper. He also won the Republican nomination for mayor in 2021 and ran unsuccessfully against the city's sitting Democratic mayor, Ed Gainey, who won by over 40 points.

O'Connor became the Democratic candidate after successfully defeating Gainey in the May Democratic mayoral primary. Gainey and O'Connor traded barbs during the primary over campaign funding. CBS News reported that Gainey accused his rival of accepting money from Trump supporters and said he was targeted for his policies restricting local law enforcement from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. O'Connor called the allegations an act of desperation and maintained he opposes the Trump administration's policies.

Gainey, who became the city’s first Black mayor, represents the progressive wing of the party. His defeat by O'Connor, seen as more of a centrist Democrat, has turned the race into a closely watched off-year election for the party, as next year's midterm elections draw closer. Pittsburgh, a blue city in a state that flipped red for Trump in 2024, could be a potential bellwether for Democrats, as the second-largest city in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.

Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrat, son of late mayor, wins race for mayor of Pittsburgh

Reporting by Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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