ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Mayor Matt Tuerk got a comprehensive win in last week’s Democratic primary, sweeping all of the city’s more than 50 voting precincts, according to an analysis of unofficial results by LehighValleyNews.com.
The incumbent received at least 70% of all Democratic ballots cast for Allentown mayor in all but two precincts and won 40 by at least 50 percentage points.
Tuerk’s narrowest margin of victory was more than 28 percentage points.
As the mayor found strong support throughout the city for his re-election bid, his opponent, city Councilman Ed Zucal, put up his best numbers in East Allentown, the analysis shows.
The challenger posted vote totals of more than 30% in three precincts, two on the East Side. He claimed just under 36% — his best result — in a south-central Allentown precinct.
Better the second time around
Tuerk narrowly won his first term from a crowded field of four candidates, picking up 2,064 votes to knock off incumbent Mayor Ray O’Connell by 122 votes.
Tuerk and Zucal duked it out in this year’s Democratic primary for Allentown mayor after Councilwoman Cynthia Mota decided against a previously mooted campaign for the city’s top job.
Unofficial results show Tuerk got almost 5,000 votes this time around, an increase of about 140% over his 2021 vote total.
Zucal found far less support than any candidate in the 2021 mayoral primary, receiving 1,191 votes in his bid to unseat Tuerk.
Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach got more than 1,800 votes as she finished fourth four years ago.
Turnout turndown
The mayor can find highlights in his successful re-election campaign, but it’s harder to find similar positive statistics about voter turnout in this year’s Democratic primary.
As expected, turnout in Allentown was much smaller than during last year’s general election and primary; but it was even significantly lower than in May 2021, when Tuerk first ran and most of the same local offices were up for grabs.
Just three precincts had voter turnout rates of more than 25%. All were in west Allentown.LehighValleyNews.com analysis
Official results from the 2021 Democratic primary show 7,972 people in Allentown cast votes. The city posted a voter turnout of 19.21% that year.
Just under 7,500 Allentonians voted this year, but voter registration has climbed significantly since then — to almost 67,500 — according to an analysis of Lehigh County’s voter turnout map.
That means only 11.1% of registered Democratic voters in Allentown cast a ballot in the party’s 2025 primary.
Three Center City precincts posted turnout rates of less than 5%, while about half of all Allentown precincts had turnouts under 10%, according to the county’s statistics.
Just three precincts had turnout rates of more than 25%. All were in west Allentown.
