1965 New York City mayoral election

← 1961 November 2, 1965 1969 →
Registered	3,281,689
Turnout	2,652,451 80.82% (4.66pp)
Candidate John Lindsay Abraham Beame William F. Buckley Jr. Party Republican Democratic Conservative Alliance Liberal Civil Service Popular vote 1,149,106 1,046,699 341,226 Percentage 45.0% 41.0% 13.4%
Results by Borough Lindsay:     40–50%     50–60% Beame:     40–50%
Mayor before election Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Democratic ElectedMayor John Lindsay Republican

The1965 New York City mayoral election occurred on Tuesday, November 2, 1965, withRepublicanCongressmanJohn Lindsay winning a close plurality victory over theDemocratic candidate,New York City ComptrollerAbraham Beame.

Lindsay received 44.99% of the vote to Beame's 40.98%, a victory margin of 4.01%.^[1] Finishing in a distant third was the candidate of the recently formedConservative Party, conservative author and commentatorWilliam F. Buckley Jr., who received 13.36% of the vote, but whose unexpectedly strong support made the race "one of the most memorable ... in New York history."^[2] Lindsay and Beame received theLiberal and Civil Service ballot line respectively. Lindsay won a decisive majority inManhattan, while winning comfortable plurality victories inQueens andStaten Island. Beame won pluralities in theBronx andBrooklyn. This was the first time since1941, and the last time until1993, that Republicans won a mayoral election in New York City.

In 1961, mayorRobert F. Wagner Jr. was re-elected to a third consecutive term. Wagner was generally popular in the city and had a reputation for integrity as an opponent ofTammany Hall.^[3]

Nevertheless, popular Republican CongressmanJohn Lindsay from theUpper East Side began to explore a run for mayor. In 1963, he told theNew York Herald Tribune editorial board he would consider a campaign for mayor, adding, "Washington, compared to New York City, is a very shallow place. It's got politics, endless white marble, and some very good museums. Beyond that it has very little."^[4] Lindsay won a landslide re-election in 1964 despite his party's own defeat at the national and state level. In a January 1965 speech to the Executives Club of Chicago titled, "The Republican Challenge," Lindsay outlined his belief that Republicans needed to "recapture the center" and could not ignore American cities "where 70 percent of the vote is found. How can Republicans as the best pragmatists of all ignore this area?"^[4]

Lindsay's efforts were aided by media attention on the issue of urban neglect, led byJock Whitney, owner of theHerald Tribune and one of Lindsay's top campaign funders. As early as 1963, Whitney and publisher Walter Thayer had sought to use the paper to support a reform candidate for mayor.^[5] Though other pieces on declining quality of life in the city were published byLook and Richard J. Whalen, theHerald Tribune led with a multi-part, pessimistic series on New York City drug use, pollution, welfare,healthcare, one-party rule,capital andwhite flight,crime, and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Lindsay later admitted the editorial series provided araison d'etre for his campaign, and when Wagner ultimately chose not to run for an expected fourth term, theHerald Tribune staff claimed credit.^[5]

• Abraham Beame, New York City Comptroller
• Paul O'Dwyer, member of the City Council from Manhattan at-large
• Paul R. Screvane, President of the New York City Council
• William Fitts Ryan, U.S. Representative from theUpper West Side

• Frank D. O'Connor, Queens County District Attorney^[6] (ran for Council President)

• Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., chair of theEqual Employment Opportunity Commission and former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce^[6]
• Robert F. Wagner Jr., incumbent mayor since 1954 (declined June 10)

On June 10, 1965, mayorRobert F. Wagner Jr. announced that he would not run for reelection.Paul R. Screvane, the president of the city council, was favored by Wagner.^[7]

• John Lindsay, U.S. Representative from theUpper East Side ofManhattan

• Jacob Javits, U.S. Senator since 1957^[8]

The Liberals viewed Screvane as uninspiring, Beame was a member of a Brooklyn political machine,Frank D. O'Connor was a conservative ally, and O'Dwyer was the brother of the party's old political enemyWilliam O'Dwyer. Members of the party liked Ryan, but viewed him as unlikely to win the Democratic nomination.^[7]

Alex Rose considered having the party nominate Lindsay even before Wagner's withdraw. Rose met withRobert Price and Price said that Rose agreed to support Lindsay in exchange for one-third of the mayoral appointments, money for the Liberal campaign, and a citywide Liberal candidate. Lindsay accepted the demand, but was upset with how unethical Price was.^[8]

Luigi Antonini opposed giving the party's nomination to a Republican, stating that it would hurt the Democrats nationally and split progressives. The convention voted 800 to 50 to endorse Lindsay. Timothy Costello, the chair of the Liberal Party, andMilton Mollen received the Liberal and Republican nominations for city council president and comptroller.^[9]

The campaign ofWilliam F. Buckley Jr. -- heir, conservative activist, syndicated columnist, and editor of the political magazineNational Review -- has been called "a bizarre but memorable chapter of the city’s political history".^[10] Buckley has been described as entered the 1965 race on theConservative Party of New York State ticket "on a lark" (historianJennifer Burns);^[11] to split the Republican vote and defeat (liberal) John Lindsay, whom Buckley reportedly "loathed" (Louis Menand);^[12] or more generally to undermine the liberal leadership of the New York Republican party (such asJacob Javits andNelson Rockefeller) and bring the party in line with the more conservative national "mainstream" of Republican opinion (Sam Tanenhaus).^[2]

Buckley took little time off from his other pursuits to campaign for mayor and was initially criticized by some for not being serious enough.^[2] However, in the four televised campaign debates he came across as a civil and witty change-of-pace from the two cliché and attack-driven veteran politicians (Lindsay and Beame),^[2][11] and "more fun to listen to than most professional comedians".^[11] At the same time he appealed to angry outer-borough, white-skinned, blue-collar, non-WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) voters known as "white ethnics", with calls for law and order and attacks on liberal policies such as welfare spending.^[2]

As the campaign went on, Buckley was shown polling as high as 20% and appeared to be diverting votes from the Democrat Beame, rather than liberal Lindsay.^[2] In the end he captured over 13% of the vote, helping Lindsay win,^[2] making himself "famous",^[11] and foreshadowing the conservativeReagan coalition that would cleanse the Republican party of liberals like Lindsay andNelson Rockefeller.^[11][12][2]

• Vito Battista, perennial candidate (United Taxpayers)
• Abraham Beame, New York City Comptroller (Democratic and Civil Service)
• William F. Buckley Jr., author and columnist (Conservative)
• Clifton DeBerry, activist and candidate for President of the United States in 1964 (Socialist Workers)
• Eric Haas, perennial candidate (Socialist Labor)
• John Lindsay, U.S. Representative from theUpper East Side (Republican, Liberal and Independent)

The Liberals pressured PresidentLyndon B. Johnson to not become involved in the election andDavid Dubinsky wrote to him about how theAmerican Labor Party endorsed both DemocraticFranklin D. Roosevelt and RepublicanFiorello La Guardia. Vice PresidentHubert Humphrey and U.S. SenatorRobert F. Kennedy campaigned for Beame, but Johnson only gave him a late endorsement.^[13]

The Liberals spent $300,000 during the campaign.^[13]

The number of votes Lindsay received on the Liberal ballot line was greater than his margin of victory.^[13]

Almost a quarter of Lindsay's vote (281,796) was on theLiberal Party ticket, while 63,590 of Beame's votes were on the Civil Service ticket.

1969 New York City mayoral election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	John Lindsay		%
	Liberal	John Lindsay	281,796	11.03%	2.32
	Independent	John Lindsay		%
	Total	John Lindsay	1,149,106	44.99%	N/A
	Democratic	Abraham Beame	983,109	38.49%	1.11
	Civil Service	Abraham Beame	63,590	2.49%	N/A
	Total	Abraham Beame	1,046,699	40.98%	N/A
	Conservative	William F. Buckley	341,226	13.36%	N/A
	United Taxpayers	Vito Battista	11,104	0.43%	0.39
	Socialist Workers	Clifton DeBerry	3,977	0.16%	0.13
	Socialist Labor	Eric Haas	2,087	0.08%	0.06
Total votes			2,554,199	100.00%

Lindsay carriedManhattan,Queens, and traditionally RepublicanStaten Island, while Beame carriedThe Bronx and his home borough ofBrooklyn, both of which he had also won in the Democratic primary. However, while Beame had also carried Queens in the primary, he lost it to Lindsay in the general election.^[14]

• Soyer, Daniel (2021).Left in the Center: The Liberal Party of New York and the Rise and Fall of American Social Democracy.Cornell University Press.ISBN 9781501759888.JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctv1hw3x50.2.

• Bridges, Linda; Coyne, John R. Jr. (2007).Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement.
• Cannato, Vincent J. (2001).The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York. Basic Books. pp. 19–74.ISBN 978-0-7867-4993-5. (excerpt)
• Carter, Barbara (1967).The Road to City Hall: How John V. Lindsay Became Mayor.
• Viteritti, Joseph P., ed. (2014).Summer in the City: John Lindsay, New York, and the American Dream. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

• Buckley, William F. Jr. (1966).The Unmaking of a Mayor.

• 1965 in New York City
• Mayoral elections in New York City
• 1965 New York (state) elections
• 1965 United States mayoral elections

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