Democratic mayoral control in big cities is new 'blue wall'
WASHINGTON — One group was noticeably absent among the biggest players in Washington, D.C. this week for the U.S. Conference of Mayors: Republicans.
There are many ways to measure the much-discussed urban and rural divide in American politics, but one area with the steepest divide, at least on the urban side, is who runs the nation’s largest cities.
Take, for example, the nation’s 10 largest cities by population. They aren’t just mostly blue, there isn’t a hint of red to be seen among them.
In nine of the 10 largest cities, the man or woman at the desk in the mayor’s office in a Democrat. And it’s not a question of regional biases. From the Northeast (New York) to the Southwest (Los Angeles) to the points in between (Chicago, Houston and Phoenix) Democrats sit in the big chair.
The only outlier is San Antonio, Texas, where Mayor Ronald Nirenberg identifies as an Independent, but is often described as a progressive.
It wasn’t always this way. A little more than 20 years ago, in 2000, four of these 10 cities had a Republican in the mayor’s office, including the nation’s two largest cities — New York and Los Angeles.
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/democratic-mayoral-control-big-cities-new-blue-wall-rcna66894