Ray O'Connell is an American politician who served as the 42nd Mayor of

Allentown Allentown may refer to several places in the United States and topics related to them: *Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California *Allentown, Georgia, a town in Wilkinson County *Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Taze ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He assumed the office on March 29, 2018 following the resignation of former mayor Ed Pawlowski. O'Connell was selected to serve as mayor by the Allentown City Council in a 4-to-3 vote. Prior to taking office as mayor, O'Connell was an educator and the Executive Director of Secondary Education for the Allentown School District and served as president of the Allentown City Council from 2015 until 2018. O'Connell previously ran for mayor in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

in both the Democratic primary and as a write-in candidate in the general election, losing to incumbent mayor Pawlowski in both. O'Connell ran for election to finish Pawlowski’s mayoral term in 2019, and won the Democratic primary for the special election on May 21. He won the election to complete the term by a 2-to-1 margin in the general election on November 5, 2019. In 2019, he announced that he would not seek re-election in 2021, but announced a bid for re-election in 2020. O'Connell lost his re-election primary to former economic development official

Matthew Tuerk Matthew Tuerk (born March 18, 1975) is an American politician and economic development official serving as the mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania since January 2022. Despite entering a crowded field with low name recognition, Tuerk became the firs ...

References

Lehigh University alumni Living people Mayors of Allentown, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania city council members Pennsylvania Democrats 1949 births {{Pennsylvania-mayor-stub