Election Name: | 1929 New York City mayoral election |
Country: | New York City |
Type: | presidential |
Ongoing: | no |
Previous Election: | 1925 New York City mayoral election |
Previous Year: | 1925 |
Next Election: | 1932 New York City special mayoral election |
Next Year: | 1932 |
Election Date: | November 5, 1929 |
Image1: | James Walker NYWTS crop.jpg |
Nominee1: | Jimmy Walker |
Party1: | Democratic Party (US) |
Popular Vote1: | 867,522 |
Percentage1: | 60.70% |
Nominee2: | Fiorello H. La Guardia |
Party2: | Republican Party (US) |
Popular Vote2: | 367,675 |
Percentage2: | 25.73% |
Image3: | Norman Thomas 1937.jpg |
Nominee3: | Norman Thomas |
Party3: | Socialist Party of America |
Popular Vote3: | 175,697 |
Percentage3: | 12.29% |
Mayor | |
Before Election: | Jimmy Walker |
Before Party: | Democratic Party (US) |
After Election: | Jimmy Walker |
After Party: | Democratic Party (US) |
Map Alt: | A map of Assembly districts by their vote in the 1929 New York City mayoral election. All voted for Walker to varying degrees. |
The 1929 New York City mayoral election was held on November 5 in concert with other municipal elections.[1] 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.[2] 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.
La Guardia gave his acceptance speech at the Mecca Temple.[3]
Walker won with a plurality of 497,165 votes, which had been the largest ever recorded for a mayoral candidate up to that time,[2] and 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.[2] Thomas's results were the highest recorded by the Socialist party to that date.[2]
Despite his success, Walker would be embroiled in scandal in 1932 and forced to resign.[4]