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Who are the mayors of the 50 largest U.S. cities and what are their party affiliations in 2023?
Executive summary
Ballotpedia’s tracking of mayoral partisanship in 2023 shows strong Democratic dominance among the largest U.S. cities: once 2023 mayors had taken office, Democrats held 63 of the top-100 mayoralties, Republicans 26, with a handful of independents, Libertarians and nonpartisan officeholders (counts repeated across Ballotpedia pages) [1] [2]. A separate Wikipedia list for the 50 largest cities summarizes party counts as roughly 39 Democrats, 8 Republicans and 3 independents for that roster, but Wikipedia reflects continually updated entries and may extend beyond strictly 2023 officeholders [3].
1. What the main sources report: Democrats dominate big-city mayoralties
Ballotpedia’s year-by-year tracking and its 2023 election summaries repeatedly report that Democrats held the large majority of mayoralties in the country’s biggest cities after the 2023 cycle — 63 Democratic mayors among the top 100 once 2023 winners assumed office, compared with 26 Republicans and several independents/nonpartisans/third-party mayors — and Ballotpedia documents its methods for determining affiliation in nonpartisan races (direct communication, prior partisan runs, or multiple media identifications) [1] [2] [4].
2. Breakdown for the 50 largest cities: numbers and caveats
A compiled list of mayors for the 50 largest U.S. cities on Wikipedia reports a partisan breakdown of 39 Democrats, 8 Republicans and 3 independents for that list — a convenient snapshot — but the Wikipedia page is updated over time and may reflect later office changes and incoming mayors beyond calendar 2023, so the exact roster for “in 2023” should be cross-checked against Ballotpedia’s contemporaneous 2023 tracking and each city’s official pages for final confirmation [3].
3. Why numbers differ between sources and snapshots
Differences between Ballotpedia and Wikipedia (and other compilations) arise from timing (when a mayor assumes office), definitions (top-50 vs top-100 city lists, county-consolidated governments included or not), and method for assigning partisan label in formally nonpartisan races; Ballotpedia explicitly lists its rules for inferring party where elections are nonpartisan, which affects totals reported for any given year [5] [1].
4. How Ballotpedia determines party affiliation — and its limits
Ballotpedia states it uses direct communication from officeholders, prior partisan candidacies, or consistent media identification to assign a partisan label in nonpartisan offices; that transparency is useful but still imposes interpretive limits because officeholders may avoid clear labels or switch affiliations midterm (Ballotpedia documents party switches, e.g., a Dallas mayor change noted in 2023) [5] [6].
5. Notable dynamics in 2023: elections, switches and small shifts
Ballotpedia’s 2023 coverage highlights that 29 of the top 100 cities held mayoral elections that year, party control changed in a handful of places, and at least one high-profile party switch (Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson) occurred — demonstrating that while the broad pattern was stability and Democratic dominance, individual cities did flip or saw affiliation changes in 2023 [1] [6].
6. What’s missing or uncertain in available reporting
Available sources do not list a single, authoritative city-by-city table of the 50 largest U.S. cities’ mayors and their 2023 party labels in one place within the provided set; Ballotpedia covers the top 100 with partisan tallies and methodology but the user’s exact request for a 50-city name-by-name roster in 2023 is not provided verbatim in these specific pages, and Wikipedia’s 50-city list may reflect edits beyond 2023, so a precise, contemporaneous 50-city list (names + party affiliations as of 2023 inauguration dates) is not found in the current reporting [2] [3].
7. How to get the definitive city-by-city list you asked for
For an authoritative, reproducible list: [7] start with Ballotpedia’s “List of current mayors of the top 100 cities” and its 2023 election pages to capture affiliations as of when mayors assumed office in 2023, [8] restrict to the 50 largest cities by the Census ranking you prefer (the Ballotpedia pages and the U.S. Census Bureau are referenced by Ballotpedia), and [9] cross-check each mayor’s official city biography or news statements cited by Ballotpedia for party confirmation. Ballotpedia provides the necessary base data and methods but the combined city-by-city 50-list in a single, time-stamped table is not present in the sources supplied here [10] [2] [5].
8. Bottom line for readers and researchers
In short, reporting from Ballotpedia shows clear Democratic dominance of large-city mayoralties after the 2023 cycle (63 of top-100), while compiled lists like Wikipedia’s provide a similar pattern for the top 50 (about 39 Democrats to 8 Republicans and a few independents) — but exact city-by-city classifying for “in 2023” requires assembling Ballotpedia’s mayor roster and election-timing details and verifying individual mayor affiliations via the methods Ballotpedia documents [1] [3] [5].