Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk easily secured a second term at the helm of Pennsylvania’s third largest city, fending off a challenge by City Council member Ed Zucal.
According to unofficial results, Tuerk had captured 72% of the vote, with 12,001 ballots cast compared to 4,644 votes for Zucal.
Tuerk declared victory at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night at a joint election watch party with Josh Siegel, Democratic candidate for Lehigh County executive, who also declared victory in his race against former Allentown police Chief Roger MacLean.
“We have made a lot of progress in the city of Allentown over the past few years, and we want to keep the momentum going,” Tuerk said in a phone interview. “Fundamentally, what we want to do is for the people of Allentown, after four years, what I can see is we are on the right track.”
Zucal called Tuerk to concede the race before 11 p.m., he told The Morning Call.
“I am a little surprised, with the tax increase and stuff, I’m surprised the outcome was not a little bit different,” Zucal said, referring to Tuerk’s proposed 2026 budget which calls for a 3.96% tax increase and is up for a preliminary City Council vote Wednesday.
“But parties don’t jump sides, and obviously Allentown is basically three-quarters Democrat, so I’m not overly surprised,” he added.
Zucal, whose City Council term also expires at the end of the year, said he would take time away from politics before deciding if he wants to continue his political career.
Tuerk handily defeated Zucal in the May Democratic primary, capturing around 80% of votes, or 4,919 ballots cast, to Zucal’s 1,189 votes. However, Zucal mounted a successful write-in effort for the Republican nomination, putting him on the general election ballot.
Tuerk, a former economic development director in the Lehigh Valley, has lived in Allentown since 2007. He touted the city’s development boom, reduction in violent crime and economic stability as he made his case to voters for a second term.
Zucal, a City Council member since 2017 and former Allentown police officer, had adopted the campaign slogan “Let’s bring Allentown back to the all-American city together.” He criticized Tuerk’s approach to public safety and said a Zucal administration would embrace “broken windows” policing — targeting low-level crimes like vandalism and loitering in order to improve quality of life and thereby discourage violent crime.
Tuerk, who won a crowded mayoral primary in 2021 with little name recognition against three other elected officials seeking that office, said his aggressive approach to campaigning was key to his victory. According to a 2021 Morning Call article, Tuerk’s campaign made a goal of talking to 150 voters per weekday, 250 on Saturdays and at least 200 on Sundays.
