Incumbent Republican David Pruhs lost his bid for reelection as mayor of historically red Fairbanks, Alaska, to Democratic candidate Mindy O’Neall.
O’Neall, who had the backing of the state’s Democratic Party, received 1,808 votes compared to Pruhs’s 1,528 votes. The 280-vote margin puts a Democrat back at the helm of the second-largest Alaskan city for the first time in nearly a decade.
“Thank you to every union member, firefighter, volunteer, phone banker, and door knocker who gave their all to this campaign,” O’Neall said in a Facebook post. “Thank you to every community member who embraced and uplifted our message of respect for everyone in our community. Because of your support, I’m excited to get to work building a safer, stronger community for all of us.”
Pruhs won his first election in 2022, after multi-term Republican mayor Jim Matherly vacated the seat to run for state Senate. After his loss on Tuesday evening, Pruhs conceded the race and congratulated O’Neall in an interview with Alaska’s News Source.
“The race is over. Mindy O’Neall won. A few votes yet to be counted, but I’m down 250 votes. The voters have spoken. I ran a good race. So did Mindy,” Pruhs said. “She had a lot of state Democratic party backing. We had a low voter turnout. So it was a perfect storm for her to take the seat.”
He said it was hard to “rebuff” her swelling support from the state party. Democratic organizations like the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee have labeled Alaska as a battleground for state elections. The state House and Senate are both listed as chambers the DLCC will invest in for 2025 and 2026.
There were 3,362 votes cast in Tuesday’s election out of 22,248 registered voters, according to the unofficial results published by the City of Fairbanks, putting the turnout at about 15%.
Pruhs ran a campaign touting his first-term successes in public safety, the local economy, and social services while maintaining goals of addressing topics such as outmigration and housing issues, according to his campaign website. O’Neall’s listed campaign priorities were improvements to public safety, housing and infrastructure, and the downtown area.
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Neither O’Neall nor Pruhs responded to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.