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1929 New York City mayoral election


The 1929 New York City mayoral election was held on November 5 in concert with other municipal elections. Democratic incumbent Jimmy Walker defeated Republican challenger Fiorello H. La Guardia in what was considered "a Crushing Defeat to [the] City G.O.P. [delivered]" by Tammany Hall. Socialist candidate Norman Thomas also ran, as did Socialist Labor candidate Olive M. Johnson and former Police Commissioner Richard Edward Enright for the Square Deal Party.

  • Fiorello LaGuardia, U.S. Representative from East Harlem
  • William M. Bennett, former State Senator from Manhattan and perennial candidate

La Guardia gave his acceptance speech at the Mecca Temple.

PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican62,89478.62%
Republican17,10021.38%
79,994100.00%

Walker won with a plurality of 497,165 votes, which had been the largest ever recorded for a mayoral candidate up to that time. This record would stand for more than five years, being surpassed when the 1935 Chicago mayoral election was won by a plurality of 631,579.

Walker won the absolute majority of votes in all five boroughs. The results were part of a larger Democratic landslide in which Democrats won the position of President of the Board of Aldermen, Comptroller, all positions in Brooklyn, and all Borough Presidencies except Queens, and gained 2 seats in the Assembly and 3 in the Board of Aldermen from Republicans. Thomas's results were the highest recorded by the Socialist party to that date.

PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic867,52260.70%
Republican367,67525.73%
Socialist175,69712.29%
Socialist Labor6,4010.45%
Communist5,8050.41%
Square DealRichard Enright5,6950.40%
Commonwealth LandLawrence W. Tracy3200.02%
1,429,115100.00%

Despite his success, Walker would be embroiled in scandal in 1932 and forced to resign.

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