(Reuters) - Liberal Democrat Bill de Blasio on Tuesday looked to have hammered Republican rival Joe Lhota in the race to succeed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, marking the first time a Democrat has captured City Hall in two decades.

Mayoral races across the United States on Tuesday came less than three weeks after a 16-day partial government shutdown, but were largely dominated by local issues, such as crime and jobs.

Here is a brief look at some of the races:

NEW YORK - De Blasio was leading Republican Joe Lhota 73 percent to 24 percent, media reported, after a campaign in which he railed against economic inequality in America's most populous city, with 56 percent of precincts reporting.

De Blasio, who was far ahead in opinion polls, won a hotly contested Democratic primary by running against Bloomberg's record on crime-fighting and economic inequality.

DETROIT - Mike Duggan, a former hospital executive, was elected mayor of Detroit, a debt-laden city that filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in July and is under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. He defeated Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon. Duggan was widely expected to win and will become Detroit's first white mayor since 1974. He takes office under Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager appointed in March by Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder to tackle Detroit's fiscal crisis.

ATLANTA - Incumbent Mayor Kasim Reed was easily re-elected to a second four-year term after facing three challengers with little name recognition or money in Atlanta's nonpartisan race. Reed, endorsed last week by President Barack Obama, has touted his hiring of more police officers and reform of the city's pension system. Reed had about 84 percent of the vote with all precincts counted, according to Fulton County.

SEATTLE - State Senator Ed Murray was leading incumbent Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn 56 percent to 43 percent in preliminary voting tallies, indicating that the challenger's promise of a more inclusive governing style had resonated with voters. Pre-election polls consistently showed Murray with a sizable lead on McGinn. Murray is leader of the state Senate Democrats who helped shepherd passage of a gay marriage law in 2012 and would be Seattle's first openly gay mayor. McGinn, a former Sierra Club executive, rides his bike to work.

BOSTON - State Representative Marty Walsh narrowly defeated City Councilor John Connolly in Boston's most competitive mayoral race in more than two decades. Connolly, a former teacher, campaigned on a pledge to improve the city's schools. Walsh has the backing of the city's labor unions. Both are Democrats, competing in the city's nonpartisan election to succeed incumbent Thomas Menino, who opted against seeking re-election after 20 years in office. Walsh won roughly 52 percent of the vote to Connolly's 48 percent, according to unofficial results from the City of Boston.

BUFFALO - In an election notable for not having a white person on the ballot, two-term incumbent Byron Brown, a Democrat and the city's first black mayor, soundly defeated Republican challenger Sergio Rodriguez, a former U.S. Marine born in the Dominican Republic. Brown won 70 percent of the vote with nearly all districts reporting, according to preliminary results by the Erie County Board of Elections. In endorsing Brown, the Buffalo News called him a "competent mayor" who "could be a better leader." The editorial called Rodriguez "too green for this position."

CHARLOTTE - Mayor Pro-tem Patrick Cannon, a Democrat, took 53 percent of the vote in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1, to defeat Republican Edwin Peacock, a former city councilman, who had about 47 percent, according to unofficial election results from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Peacock had received help from the state and national parties, which are keen to get a head start on voter turnout as they aim to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Kay Hagan next year. Voters were selecting a successor to Anthony Foxx, who in July joined President Barack Obama's cabinet as U.S. Transportation Secretary.

CINCINNATI - John Cranley beat Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls in the race to succeed Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, who was limited to two successive terms in office. Cranley, who served on the city council for nearly a decade, is a real estate attorney and was a co-founder and former director of the Ohio Innocence Project that aims to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing. Qualls, who served as mayor in the 1990s, returned to the city council in 2007 and has focused on improving neighborhoods and public transportation. Cranley took 58 percent of the vote to Qualls' 42 percent, according to unofficial results compiled by the Hamilton County, Ohio, Board of Elections.

CLEVELAND - Mayor Frank Jackson easily won a third term against fellow Democrat Kenneth Lanci, a businessman who was considered a longshot. Jackson won 66 percent of the vote, according to unofficial Cuyahoga County elections results. Lanci had received the endorsement from the Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association, the officers' union. With a slogan "together we will do better," Lanci, who is white, has courted the inner-city black vote while driving his luxury Bentley car through the poor areas of Cleveland. Jackson is black.

HOUSTON - Incumbent Annise Parker, the city's first openly gay mayor, won a third and final term after facing challenges from eight candidates including attorney Ben Hall. Both Hall and Parker are Democrats, although Hall has portrayed himself as more fiscally conservative. Parker won roughly 57 percent of the vote to Hall's roughly 28 percent, according to results posted on the Harris County Clerk's website. Parker's majority vote allows her to avoid a runoff election.

MIAMI - Cuban-American Mayor Tomas Regalado, running virtually unopposed, appeared poised to win re-election with about 78 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results from Miami-Dade County Elections. Regalado survived a rough first term that saw property values and his city budget plummet due to the recession, and a public battle with a police chief over a series of police shootings of mostly unarmed black men.

MINNEAPOLIS - Thirty-five candidates were on the ballot to succeed R.T. Rybak, who opted against seeking a fourth term as mayor of Minnesota's largest city. Minneapolis uses ranked choice voting in its mayoral election, asking voters to select three choices by preference. Minneapolis City Council Member Betsy Hodges held a more than 11 percentage point lead over the second place candidate, businessman Mark Andrew. Andrew told local media he thought the lead may be insurmountable, but it was well short of the majority needed to be declared the winner on Tuesday. Election officials plan to count second- and third-choice rankings to declare the winner on Wednesday. Issues include a proposed light rail expansion, reintroduction of trolleys and ways to reduce crime and property taxes.

PITTSBURGH - Democrat Bill Peduto took about 84 percent of the vote to defeat Republican perennial candidate Josh Wander, who is currently living in Israel, according to preliminary results from Allegheny County. A union town, Pittsburgh is a Democratic stronghold where Democratic Mayor Luke Ravenstahl opted not to seek re-election. Ravenstahl was 26 seven years ago when Mayor Bob O'Connor died suddenly and Ravenstahl became the youngest mayor of any major city in the country. Known for his youthful hijinks, including public intoxication, he is currently trying to secure his legacy on Twitter using the hashtag #7yearsofsuccesses while his administration fields questions from the U.S. Attorney's Office in an investigation shrouded in secrecy.

(Reporting by David Beasley, Scott Malone, Daniel Trotta, Colleen Jenkins, David Bailey, Kim Palmer, Andrea Lorenz Nenque, David Adams, Elizabeth Daley and Jonathan Kaminsky; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Patrick Graham)