Turkey’s seemingly simultaneous democratic gains and rollbacks present a puzzle suggesting a need to focus on the subnational dynamics of opposition and repression. As case in point, many analysts initially heralded opposition victories against ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidates in Turkey’s 2019 local elections, including major metropolitan centers such as Istanbul and Ankara, as proof of democratic resilience in an otherwise increasingly authoritarian regime. However, upon taking power in the previously AKP-dominated municipalities, Istanbul and Ankara opposition mayors faced numerous obstacles to their ability to govern, including threats of removal and indictments of party members, budget curtailments, and repeated claims they are involved in “terrorist” activities. Deeper analysis indicates that similar strategies of repression were used in the early 2010s by the AKP in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority municipalities. To understand these political, economic, and rhetorical dynamics of repression and how their use expands, this paper analyzes how competitive authoritarian regimes confront challenges arising from local politics. Specifically, we identify three authoritarian consolidation mechanisms of removal, hamstringing, and vilification of those opposition actors who do manage to be elected in order to weaken their potential challenge. Further, we demonstrate how the ruling party was able to hone these strategies in the eastern Kurdish region, where de-democratization measures were met with comparatively little public outcry from citizens in western Turkey. The paper incorporates municipal-level election and budget data, content analysis of AKP statements, observer reports of election irregularities, and in-depth interviews conducted in the Kurdish region to identify and process-trace its three strategies of authoritarian consolidation. Distinct from the dynamics of ethnic repression of Kurds witnessed under previous governments, we argue current practice represents the testing and expansion of an authoritarian repertoire in Turkey in response to democratic mobilization and opposition gains.