MAYOR-ELECT COREY O’CONNOR | PHOTO BY PHOTO BY KALLIYAN WINDER/NEXT GENERATION NEWSROOM

Democrat Corey O’Connor will take the oath of office on Jan. 5, 2026, to become Pittsburgh’s 62nd mayor.

His election, winning more than 87% of the vote against Republican Tony Moreno, comes almost 20 years to the day that his father — Bob O’Connor — won the election as the city’s 58th mayor.

But the younger O’Connor is not the first man to follow his father into the role.

That claim belongs to a Murray/Guthrie dynasty that straddled the 1800s and early 1900s, according to the City of Pittsburgh website.

This line started with the city’s fourth mayor, Magnus M. Murray, who served two non-consecutive terms between 1828 and 1832.  He was at the helm when city council passed a law allowing dogs without collars to be shot on sight. He opposed the measure and suggested that the number of dogs could be reduced more effectively by taxation.

His son-in-law, John B. Guthrie, was elected mayor in 1851, serving until 1853. He is credited with appointing a new police force in an attempt to rid the city of crime.

His son and Murray’s grandson, George W. Guthrie, served as mayor from 1906-1909. As mayor, George Guthrie exposed the general corruption of city government that led to the conviction of many council members. He also was serving when the city annexed Sheridan (now part of the West End) and the City of Allegheny (North Side) into Pittsburgh.

Corey O’Connor’s father was known as the “people’s mayor,” but served one of the shortest Pittsburgh mayoral terms — just eight months, from Jan. 3-Sept. 1, 2006. He died of a brain tumor while in office.

Mayor-Elect O’Connor, 41, of Point Breeze, can claim one first: He’s the first alum of Duquesne University to become Pittsburgh mayor. O’Connor, who graduated in 2007, was congratulated on election night by Duquesne President Ken Gormley.

This follows other mayoral “firsts” that have occurred in recent years. Sophie Masloff became the first and so far only female mayor after Richard Caliguiri died in office in 1988. After Bob O’Connor died in office, Luke Ravenstahl, at age 26, became the city’s youngest mayor (and at the time was the youngest mayor of a major American city). Ed Gainey, who lost the Democratic primary in May in his first term, was the city’s first Black mayor.

O’Connor has served as a city councilman in District 5 (East End neighborhoods) and Allegheny County controller. Just months into his first mayoral term, he’ll be facing another first: overseeing the largest number of visitors ever to descend upon the Steel City, as an estimated 700,000 fans arrive for the NFL Draft in April.