Why Few Mayors Seek Higher Office

October 2018

Cory Booker will “inevitably” run for president, political analyst Larry Sabato says, citing the ambitious Democrat’s experience as mayor of Newark, N.J, before being elected to the U.S. Senate.

Bernie Sanders and Tim Kaine, also Democrats, were mayors of Burlington, Vt., and Richmond, Va., respectively, before seeking higher office. And there’s talk that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may run in 2020. But how typical is their ambition? And how likely is it that mayors, who hold executive offices, will seek election to legislative bodies?

A study by political scientists at Boston University finds that for all the publicity that mayors of even big cities might receive, not very many seek higher office. Looking at data from 1992 through 2015 and responses from a survey of 90 mayors from cities with populations of 75,000 or more, the researchers found that only 15 percent ran for higher office, with about 5 percent winning election. Of those who ran, 34 percent sought legislative offices, while 41 percent wanted to be governors.

The researchers also tried to understand the decisions mayors made, with revealing results. Many mayors simply prefer to hold executive office rather than be another representative in a legislative body. Or they just like working at the municipal level. The researchers quote a study from 1980 that seems even more applicable today. That research found that mayors prefer working on urban issues, in an environment that is generally less partisan than is the case in state capitals and in Washington, D.C. Mayors “are almost completely divorced from the issues that agitate our national politics,” the earlier study found.

The widespread perception that not much gets done in state legislatures and especially in Congress has led mayors to view cities “as the only places where exciting legislation can get passed,” the study says. As one Western mayor told the researchers, cities “are where you actually get work done.”