Alaska’s City of Fairbanks Mayor David Pruhs, a Republican, conceded to Mindy O’Neall, a Democrat, in the mayoral election on Tuesday night.
According to unofficial election night results made available by the city of Fairbanks, O’Neall received 1,808 votes (54 percent) and Pruhs received 1,528 votes (45.7 percent).
The ballot in mayoral elections in Fairbanks does not list party affiliations next to candidates’ names, but Republicans have held the role in Fairbanks for nearly a decade.
Fairbanks had a democratic mayor from 2013-16, which was very surprising to me. And to my mother who grew up there in the 60s.
https://thealaskacurrent.com/2025/10/09/fairbanks-progressives-win-near-sweep-in-local-elections/
This blog, which I think may be using “progressive” wrongly, says that Ds won all other contested spots but 1 school board seat. An uncontested race went to R, but a “late forming” write in campaign still garnered a quarter of the vote.
These signs seem promising, but the blog post makes it seem like local factors may have played a large role. That would speak against taking it as a bellwether. The post claims the victory is “less of a shock” to those watching local politics, which again to me suggests local factors looming large.