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It was the second consecutive sweep by city Democrats in a mayoral election.
Gray, who is completing his first four-year term, defeated former Republican Mayor Charlie Smithgall with 52 percent of the vote.
The results, with all precincts reporting, are:
Rick Gray — 3787
Charlie Smithgall — 3474
Gray claimed victory before a crowd of supporters at his campaign headquarters less than two hours after polls closed.
Gray said the positive campaign waged by himself and City Council candidates Louise Williams, Jose Urdaneta, Tim Roschel and Todd Smith resonated with voters.
"Negative campaigning may have an impact, but it doesn't work. … If you run down the city that you want to govern, it's not going to work," said Gray, who faulted Smithgall for a campaign message that crime is rampant in the city.
Smithgall conceded the race, but rejected Gray's claims that it was a mandate of his administration.
"Out of a 13,000-plus voter deficit and to only lose by 300 votes is really an amazing thing," Smithgall said, referring to the Democratic voter-registration edge in the city.
"I think it sends a message that the city is not happy with the way things are going. It's not a mandate at all," Smithgall said of the results.
The only other citywide Republican candidate was Matt Holden, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council.
Holden ran against a full slate of Democrats, three of whom are incumbents. Williams, Urdaneta and Roschel were all elected to a second term.
With all city precincts reporting, the results in the City Council voting are:
Louise B. Williams — 4255
Jose Urdaneta — 4036
Tim Roschel — 4007
Todd E. Smith — 3851
Matthew Holden — 3303
Williams said she believes voters came out to reward the Democrats for initiatives such as establishing single-hauler residential trash service and tougher regulation of landlords and problem tenants.
"I think the people believed in what we are doing and have done in the city," Williams said. "I believe people think we have been trying to do what is best for the city."
Holden Tuesday night thanked his supporters for their hard work and claimed a limited victory in doing as well as he did.
"It was a very difficult race. We knew that from the beginning," he said, adding that he believed having a slate of fellow Republican candidates would have helped him.
Lancaster City Democratic Chairman John Graupera said many factors went into the Democrats' win.
"It always starts with good candidates and a dedicated campaign staff and top-notch volunteers. If you've got all that, then you get the results that you see here tonight," Graupera said shortly before Gray made his victory speech.
Roschel, particularly, credited the Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts.
Those efforts began with volunteers staffing phone banks two weeks before the election. They made calls every weekday evening, ultimately calling 5,000 likely voters, said Jerome Hodos, the party's volunteer coordinator.
Hodos said volunteers attempted to call all 5,000 of those voters again Tuesday to urge them to go to the polls.
Between 150 and 200 party volunteers made calls and distributed literature for the candidates from Saturday until Tuesday. On Tuesday alone, there were 130 to 140 volunteers outside the polls and knocking on doors, and four people driving voters to the polls.
Graupera said the party was hoping to equal the 25-percent turnout from the last mayoral election four years ago. This time, only 19 percent of the city's 38,150 registered voters went to the polls.
In March, when no Republican had come forward by the primary election filing deadline, Gray said he would run the same campaign regardless of whether he had a challenger.
"We had to answer some of the attacks, that was different," Gray said, adding that other than that, "we did pretty much the same thing we started out to do."
Smithgall only became a candidate following the May primary. During that election, more than 130 voters cast write-in ballots with his name, in a campaign that Smithgall said he did not orchestrate. In late June, Smithgall announced that he would accept the nomination.
Late Tuesday, he urged his supporters not to give up. He urged them to attend City Council meetings and challenge Gray not to cut city police positions or pursue unnecessary spending.
And he rejected the Democrats' claims that that his campaign was negative.
"People had to be awoken as to what is going on in the city and that was the way to do it," Smithgall said. "The city is in trouble and people had to know it."
