Following national news reports about Republican donors courting his Democratic primary opponent and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey reaffirmed his relationship with community advocates and admonished what his campaign calls MAGA funding.
“This May, we have a choice to make again, and I believe I know just what our city is ready to say and do: Hell no to Trumpism and making sure that we reject opponents’ MAGA-backed campaign,” says Gainey at a Mar. 3 press conference.
A piece from The Guardian published early Monday morning detailed maximum donations from several Republican donors, such as J. Clifford Forrest and Herb Shear, as well as O’Connor’s attendance at a private social club meeting organized by a trustee of Commonwealth Partners, a right-wing non-profit associated with billionaire and big-time Republican donor Jeffrey Yass. The O’Connor campaign told The Guardian that the candidate “spoke about his record of progressive reform and his plans to make housing more affordable, expanding before and after school programming, and reopening [recreation] centers” during the meeting.
Hours later came an article from The Intercept that tallied GOP donations for O’Connor’s campaign at more than $130,000 — more than a fifth of O’Connor’s total fundraising in January. An O’Connor spokesperson also told The Intercept that the county controller holds progressive values and added that “he cannot and will not be bought by anyone.”
In a phone interview with Pittsburgh City Paper, O’Connor flatly denied the accusation from the Gainey campaign that he is bought by MAGA and said the attack “shows desperation in the mayor’s office.” He also said that Gainey has received donations from Republicans too.
“To me, it’s a joke from a campaign that is running scared,” O’Connor says. “They’re not talking about citywide issues.”
O’Connor’s team shared with City Paper and other outlets a document asserting Gainey received more than $82,000 in donations from Republicans, including Forrest. The vast majority of the donations listed, including from Forrest, came in 2021 after Gainey’s primary victory against former Mayor Bill Peduto. (Gainey, like all recent Democratic Mayors, easily won the general election.) O’Connor also criticized Gainey for suggesting Pittsburgh as a possible location for the Republican National Committee last year.
At the press conference, a reporter asked Gainey about these points by O’Connor.
“I don’t believe the Republican National Convention came here, that’s number one,” Gainey responded. “Number two is, that was four years ago, in a general election, when we were talking about building bridges … so that we can make sure that we have a strong economy.”
In a statement provided to CP, a spokesperson for Gainey’s campaign described Forrest’s donation as an “oversight” and said on Friday a check had been mailed returning the full amount of the donation. The campaign also provided a statement from its treasurer Jonathan Mayo, who said that Gainey and O’Connor’s donations are apples and oranges.
“We’re not talking about business owners who donate to local candidates of both parties, or moderates who give to moderates in both parties,” Mayo said. “We’re talking about the MAGA advisors who got Trump elected and the millionaires who are bankrolling the MAGA movement working to elect O’Connor as part of a national effort by Republican operatives to challenge mayors who stand up to Trump in Democratic primaries.”
Gainey, alongside several advocates of various social issues, spoke at QMNTY Closet, a free resource for clothing and other necessities for LGBTQ people operated by the QMNTY Center. About 40 people clustered in a small room with shelves of clothing on one side and racks on the other.
For the bulk of the press conference, Gainey stood by as advocates not directly a part of Gainey’s administration spoke in support of the mayor and against O’Connor, following a familiar strategy from the mayor that highlights diverse voices across Pittsburgh’s communities.
Monica Ruiz, the executive director of Case San José, a non-profit that advocates for the Latino community, opened the press conference by summarizing and responding to the news. Ruiz described the Republican funding of O’Connor as part of a larger, Trump-flavored rightwing movement.
“Trump’s people know Pittsburgh won’t elect a Republican, so instead, they’re pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of attack ads lying about Mayor Ed Gainey’s record into our Democratic primary on behalf of a candidate they think will be easier to influence, because they know damn well that Mayor Gainey will never bow down to MAGA,” Ruiz said.
Additionally, Chauntey Wilson, a transgender healthcare worker, spoke about anti-trans discrimination and the hope Gainey gives her, Nev Jones, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, spoke about the termination a week ago of a grant for Social Security Administration-funded research into potential barriers in the workforce for Pennsylvanian with disabilities, and Jenise Brown, a United Steelworkers organizer, touted the City of Pittsburgh’s recently launched “Keep Pittsburgh Home” affordable housing initiative.
Tanisha Long, a progressive activist and organizer for the Abolitionist Law Center, attended the press conference and told CP that she found it to be a clear message.
“When I look at the mayor’s race and what I value, I do look at where the money comes from,” Long said. “That’s important to me. And I don’t believe that you can take that amount of money from MAGA donors and not owe them something.”
O’Connor has massively outspent Gainey in the campaign so far, and a recent report from Axios referenced an internal poll showing O’Connor leading Gainey by 12 points. Long said she believes Gainey to be competitive and pushed back on the notion that the election looks dire for Gainey.
“I think that it’s been artificially inflated to look like a tough primary,” Long told CP. “I think what [O’Connor] did was he came out hard and fast with a lot of these big money, developer, MAGA, corporate donations to make it look like [Gainey] didn’t have a fighting chance, when, in reality, he’s got the same community support he did before, he’s been doing some great things, and when you have that amount of money, you have the ability to drown out the voices that are doing the work.”
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2025.
