2015 Las Vegas mayoral election

The major candidates were incumbent mayor Carolyn Goodman, an independent elected in the 2011 race, and Stavros Anthony, a Las Vegas City Councilman and Republican. Anthony was also the city's mayor pro tem, serving as the second-in-command on the city council. He announced his candidacy for mayor on January 20, 2015, going up against Goodman in her re-election bid. Goodman was surprised by his decision to run against her: "He told me just a few months ago what a great job I was doing. And that while he'd love to run for mayor, he wasn't going to."^[2]

A major item of debate was an attempt by Goodman to build a Major League Soccer stadium,^[3] partially funded by taxpayer dollars, at Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas.^[2] Anthony had been an outspoken critic of the stadium project, and had opposed it in the 4–3 city council vote in favor of it.^[4] The project was Anthony's primary reason for running;^[2][5] it was scrapped in February 2015.^[6] Goodman spent more than $755,000 in campaign advertising, while Anthony spent $281,000.^[7][3] Other candidates included Phil Cory (an Internet marketer) and Abdul Shabazz (a perennial candidate).^[1]

The election was held on April 7, 2015. Goodman easily won re-election with nearly 55 percent of the vote to Anthony's 42 percent.^[7][8] Had no candidate received a majority of the vote in the first round, a runoff election would have been held on June 2.^[8] A week after the election, Goodman recommended that Anthony be replaced by councilman Steve Ross as mayor pro tem; the motion passed unanimously.^[9]