Poll worker Todd James walks outside the American Legion Langley Post #496, in Sheraden, where voters helped Democrat Kim Salinetro stave off a Republican challenge to Pittsburgh’s District 2 seat on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh’s Public Source) A spirited Republican challenge in District 2 did not end Democrats’ decadeslong monopoly of Pittsburgh’s City Council, and Democrats cruised to continued dominance of the county’s legislative branch. “Pittsburgh’s Public Source is an independent nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region. Sign up for our free newsletters.”

by Charlie Wolfson, Ember Duke and Jamie Wiggan, Pittsburgh’s Public Source November 4, 2025

Incumbents and Democrats mostly ruled the day in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County legislative elections Tuesday. Three incumbents (Erika Strassburger, Anthony Coghill and Daniel Lavelle) won reelection to Pittsburgh City Council, and in an open western neighborhoods seat, Kim Salinetro, the chief of staff to the retiring representative, prevailed over a spirited Republican effort. The lone suspense as votes rolled in centered on Allegheny County Council’s at-large seat, a special election to complete the term of former Councilman Sam DeMarco, who resigned early this year. Republican Mike Embrescia was appointed as interim councilman and sought voter approval to continue in the role. Alex Rose, a registered Democrat, ran as an independent due to county rules preventing one party from possessing both at-large seats. With more than three in four precincts counted, Rose led Embrescia by nearly 40,000 votes, meaning the 15-member body stands to have just one Republican member going forward. Elsewhere on County Council, Democrats held their firm majority. Incumbents Pat Catena, Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, Bob Palmosina and Jordan Botta each won new terms, and open seats were claimed by Democratic nominees Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, Lissa Geiger Shulman and Aaron Adams.

Allegheny County Council

Eight Allegheny County Council seats were at stake, including six regularly-scheduled elections and two special elections. All were contested. The results are hardly surprising given the political makeup of the represented areas. Pittsburgh City Council hasn’t had a Republican member in about a century, and all of the County Council districts up for election this year have a Democratic voter registration leaning. Nebraska Grayson, executive director of the Allegheny County Democratic Committee, said tonight’s wins show local Dems have bounced back from 2024’s drubbing. “What was really energizing about tonight, was that we know everyone was really exhausted after the losses last year,” Grayson said. “So seeing people muster up the energy and bring successes was very rewarding.”

Spirited challenge fails to gain ground in the West End

After an energetic showing on the campaign trail, Erin Koper came up short in her bid to end Democrats’ dominance over Pittsburgh City Council. She raised almost $20,000 since the primary, versus nearly $30,000 by Salinetro, who won the seat comfortably. Koper gained some fame with a speech at last year’s Republican National Convention, during which she criticized the city’s record on crime and safety. She pitched her candidacy as a chance to shake up the Democratic leadership and get results for the city’s West End neighborhoods.

Pittsburgh City Council

Three of four City Council races were contested. The uncontested candidate was incumbent Democrat Erika Strassburger of District 8.

Before polls closed, at least some swing voters said they took a chance on Koper this time. Sandy Maker, 68, of Elliott, said she’s typically more neutral on local candidates but canvassed for Koper after seeing her engage with residents. “She’s in it for the long run,” Maker said of Koper. Koper said even blue-voting neighbors welcomed her campaign, largely because of her record as a community organizer. “Our message resonates with people and across party lines,” she said during an interview before the election. “We want to unite on the issues that affect us most, like safe streets and lowering our taxes, and fixing our infrastructure and investing in our neighborhoods.”

Democrat Salinetro ultimately won soundly, though, capturing a three-to-one share of the votes by 10 p.m. on Election Night, with the majority of precincts counted. The result showed a Republican takeover of the district – unchallenged for at least four election cycles — might be tougher than Koper and her supporters banked on. Salinetro acknowledged the district has conservative leanings, noting “almost every door I knocked, people talked about police. They want to feel safe in their homes. Folks want basic services, and they deserve to have it well.” Salinetro said her time as chief of staff for the district’s outgoing member, Theresa Kail-Smith, laid the groundwork for her campaign outreach, though she said her strategy will diverge from her predecessor in time. “If they don’t know my face, they know my name, and they’ve talked to me in the office or at a community meeting or community event,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’m getting a lot of negative feedback from folks.” That extended to people like Earnest and Vanessa Fullwood, 69 and 66, who said they wanted to see Salinetro win despite questions over how she will come through for their neighborhood. The couple, who retired in Pittsburgh, said they want to see more support for public safety and other youth programming from the city, but they were guided to the polls more by the Supreme Court retention contests than local issues. Salinetro said she’s excited to work with Mayor-elect Corey O’Connor, whose late father gave her her first job, around 45 years ago, before he gave up his restaurant empire to lead city hall. Salinetro pledged to bring quick results to a district some see as forgotten. “I have four years to make an impact, and that’s how I’m going into this.”

Margins hint at voter mood

This is the first election since Donald Trump inaugurated his second term as president, and Democrats could look at the margins here for a sign of voter sentiment as the nation turns its eyes to next year’s midterm elections. Next year figures to be another nail-biter in Pennsylvania, with Josh Shapiro running for a second term as governor, several contested congressional districts with the potential to decide control of the House, and control of the Pennsylvania legislature coming down to a few seats in both chambers. The county includes 501,178 registered Democrats versus 264,769 registered Republicans, with just over 147,000 unaffiliated or registered with other parties. The contested County Council districts include three in which registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by less than 20 percentage points: District 1 spanning Findlay to Ross, District 3 from West Deer to Reserve, and District 4 from South Fayette to Stowe. In those races, the Democrats were running up 20-percentage-point margins with the vast majority of votes counted. In the countywide contest between Embrescia and Rose, the margin appeared to be narrower, but may not reflect partisan energy because Rose did not carry the Democratic label.

Allegheny County Sheriff

In the race for sheriff between incumbent Democrat Kevin Kraus and Republican Brian Weismantle, Kraus easily doubled Weismantle’s vote count. Grayson said tonight’s Democrat successes owe a lot to deliberate coordination between candidates across the ballot. It’s “not just down ballot lift, but people paying attention to so many different races is really incredible,” Grayson said. “I think more people voted down the ballot because we saw energy from Democrats at all levels.” Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org. Ember Duke is a Pittsburgh’s Public Source editorial intern. She can be reached at ember@publicsource.org. Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org. This article first appeared on Pittsburgh’s Public Source and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.