Trump Donors Try to Buy Pittsburgh Mayor’s Race
Republican donors are getting involved in a clash between progressives in Pittsburgh, backing Mayor Ed Gainey’s challenger Corey O’Connor.
Now that Republicans have won control of government in Washington, they’re shifting their sights to a progressive enclave in Pennsylvania.
Major donors to President Donald Trump are pouring money into the race to unseat Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, lining up behind his Democratic primary opponent, Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor.
Three months ahead of the primary, the GOP donors have already funneled more than $130,000 into the race, constituting more than 20 percent of O’Connor’s January haul. At least five Trump and Republican donors have maxed out to O’Connor’s campaign, helping him to outraise Gainey last month with $464,000 to Gainey’s $23,600, according to January campaign finance reports.
While Gainey has taken outspoken progressive stances on issues from housing to immigration, the right-leaning donors see O’Connor as more of a blank slate, said Tanisha Long, a Gainey supporter and an Allegheny County political director for Straight Ahead, a criminal justice project of the Abolitionist Law Center.
“He won’t outright embrace those people, but he will very happily accept checks.”
“A lot of the Republicans,” said Long, referring to the donors, “are running with the fact that Corey doesn’t really take hard stances on things.”
She said O’Connor is being politically delicate but appears willing to take the cash: “He won’t outright embrace those people, but he will very happily accept checks.”
In small communities like Pittsburgh, the relatively small donor pool and a weak Republican Party means it’s common for Republican donors to get involved in Democratic races. The influx of GOP money in a primary, however, is unusual for Pittsburgh, Long said.
Democratic Pittsburgh City Councilmember Barb Warwick, who represents O’Connor’s old city council district and is backing Gainey, found the GOP money in the mayor’s race particularly disconcerting. Trump’s current approach — fostering a developer and tech plutocracy — has already been a feature of right-wing Pittsburgh politics, she said.
“It makes sense that they are putting money toward getting rid of him,” Warwick said of the donors and Gainey. “It doesn’t surprise me that the same folks who are trying to overstep what’s good for regular people on the ground at the national level are also trying to push aside a mayor who is really focused on what’s good for the people living here in Pittsburgh today.”
A spokesperson for O’Connor’s campaign said the challenger took progressive stances.
“Corey has delivered for workers by challenging wealthy corporate interests, stood alongside community members against developers, and took a stand against the powerful gun lobby,” said the spokesperson, Ben Forstate. “The fights that he has undertaken for Pittsburgh residents show that he cannot and will not be bought by anyone.”
The next campaign finance reports in the mayor’s race are expected later this month. O’Connor has outraised Gainey in both small and large-dollar contributions. His campaign reported more than contributions over $250 from more than 250 people, totaling more than $450,000. Gainey’s campaign reported contributions over $250 from 15 people totaling $14,725.
O’Connor’s campaign touted its small-dollar support.
“The fact that we’ve raised more than our opponent in small contributions from more individual small-dollar donors,” said Forstate, “shows Pittsburghers from all walks of life — whether they’re laborers, teachers, service workers, paramedics, or retirees — are behind Corey.”
In addition to donors, other figures from Trump-world and the Republican Party have become involved with O’Connor’s campaign.
Trump consultant and pollster Kent Gates, whose firm took a six-figure payment from Trump’s 2024 campaign, appeared at an event with O’Connor earlier this month. The event, a roundtable meeting with local business leaders, was organized with help from Republican operative Jeff Kendall, a close ally and surrogate of billionaire and controversial GOP megadonor Jeffrey Yass. (Gates and Kendall did not respond to a request for comment.)
Forstate, the O’Connor spokesperson, said the campaign would not accept money from Yass, was not aware that Gates and Kendall had helped organize the event, and that O’Connor gave his standard stump speech.
“He did not request donations, and this was not an event planned, organized, or produced by the O’Connor campaign,” Forstate said. “We’ve taken zero dollars from Gates or Kendall. We were not aware that the event was organized by those individuals.”
Some Trump donors, however, have given. Clifford Forrest, who owns a Pennsylvania mining firm and donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee in 2016, gave O’Connor $3,300 in January. (Forrest did not respond to a request for comment.)
The O’Connor campaign pointed to donations from Republicans to Gainey, the bulk of which came during his 2021 general election effort. “Our campaign took our lead on fundraising from the mayor,” Forstate said in a statement to The Intercept, citing a Forrest contribution to Gainey in 2021. “Over the last four years Mayor Gainey took over $82,000 from Trump and GOP donors.”
In 2021, Gainey raised $55,600 — five percent of the money he took in that cycle — from Trump donors, and registered Republicans. (Several of the registered Republicans are regular Democratic donors with no history of giving to the GOP.) In 2021, Gainey also took $5,000 from the O’Connor donor Forrest and his wife. (In response to questions about the contribution, Gainey’s campaign said it was an oversight and that a refund would be issued.)
The money O’Connor has raised from Trump and GOP donors in January alone — more than 20 percent of his total haul that month — dwarfs GOP donor support for Gainey over the last four years.
GOP megadonor Herb Shear, who has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups supporting Trump, maxed out his contribution to O’Connor’s campaign last month. Other GOP donors who maxed out to O’Connor’s campaign include Kent McElhattan, John Staley IV, and Thomas Grealish. Forstate said O’Connor’s campaign returned a contribution from one GOP donor. (None of the Republican O’Connor donors responded to a request for comment.)
Republican donors see a threat rising in Pittsburgh, where progressives have found success amid broader Democratic failures.
Gainey has been an instrumental part of the movement to build a progressive bench in Western Pennsylvania, even as Democrats continue to erode support. He’s also been vocal in opposing Trump’s efforts to track down and remove undocumented immigrants. In January, Gainey said his office would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that Pittsburgh, a city made of immigrants, would “always be welcoming of everybody.”
Gainey has worked closely with Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., and his 2021 election boosted her 2022 congressional campaign. Gainey and Lee’s wins also helped pave the way for progressive Sara Innamorato’s 2023 election as Allegheny County executive, one of the most powerful offices in the western part of the state.
O’Connor himself has been part of that progressive surge. He is the son of former Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor and was a city councilmember from 2012 to 2022, when he was first appointed as Allegheny County controller by then-Gov. Tom Wolf.
O’Connor elected to a full term as controller in 2023. He has used his position to address criminal justice issues and shine a light on how the county jail destabilizes families. O’Connor also refused an invitation from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to challenge Lee in Congress, The Intercept reported.
In the mayoral race, however, O’Connor attracted money from real estate interests. Developers including Walnut Capital executives Gregg Perelman and Todd Reidbord maxed out to O’Connor’s campaign in December, as did one of their employees. One of the company’s properties is hosting an event for O’Connor next month with tickets ranging from $100 to $1,000. The Walnut Capital donors and O’Connor’s campaign did not respond to questions about the contributions or the event.
Gainey has been a vocal advocate for affordable housing and pushed zoning reforms that drew the ire of real estate interests.
O’Connor supported affordable housing measures during his time on city council and says he wants to expand affordable housing in Pittsburgh. He has also said he doesn’t believe inclusionary zoning should be required in every neighborhood and said he’s open to waiving certain fees to boost development.
“It’s easy to say that you’re for the people,” said Warwick, the councilmember. “It’s a much different thing to actually step forward and put your foot down.”
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