Thirteen of the 100 largest U.S. cities by population held general elections for mayor on Nov. 7, 2023. These elections resulted in party control of the mayor’s office changing in two cities. In Wichita, Kansas, Libertarian Lily Wu defeated incumbent Democratic mayor Brandon Whipple, and in Spokane, Washington, Democrat Lisa Brown defeated incumbent Republican mayor Nadine Woodward.
Twenty-nine of the 100 largest U.S. cities held mayoral elections in 2023, with a Dec. 9 runoff in Houston, Texas, still to go. Heading into the year, 20 of those cities had a Democratic mayor, seven had a Republican mayor, one mayor was independent, and one mayor’s partisan affiliation was unknown.
Aside from the two offices that changed party control on Nov. 7, three other top-100 mayoral partisanship changes occurred in 2023. In Colorado Springs, Colorado, independent Yemi Mobolade defeated Republican Wayne Williams in a May runoff election to succeed term-limited incumbent John Suthers, a Republican.
Also in May, Democrat Donna Deegan defeated Republican Daniel Davis in the runoff election for mayor of Jacksonville, Florida. Incumbent Lenny Curry, a Republican, was term-limited.
In September, Dallas, Texas, Mayor Eric Johnson announced that he was changing his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican.
As of November 2023, Democrats hold 63 top-100 mayoral offices, Republicans hold 26, independents hold four, and nonpartisan mayors hold five. Two mayors’ partisan affiliations are unknown.
In cities where mayoral elections are nonpartisan, Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder’s partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
