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The1913 Pittsburgh mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1913, inPittsburgh,Pennsylvania.Joseph G. Armstrong was electedmayor of Pittsburgh overStephen G. Porter in anonpartisan election.
The election in 1913 was the first Pittsburgh mayoral contest to be conducted under a new nonpartisan ballot law that eliminated party labels from ballots and replaced the party primaries with anonpartisan blanket primary.[1]
In the early stages of the campaign, support formed around two candidates, public works directorJoseph G. Armstrong and U.S. RepresentativeStephen G. Porter. Incumbent mayorWilliam A. Magee, who by law was ineligible to run for a consecutive term, gave his support to Porter, as did longtime political bossWilliam Flinn. U.S. SenatorsGeorge T. Oliver andBoies Penrose and local Republican leader Max G. Leslie backed Armstrong.[1][2]
There were six official candidates in the primary.[1] Although the candidates were officially non-partisan, the press identified Armstrong and Porter asRepublicans,[3] Frank I. Gosser as aDemocrat,[4] William J. Van Essen as aSocialist,[5] and Robert S. Glass as aProhibitionist.[5] Victor Breitenstein styled himself as "the workingmen's independent candidate" but rejected a socialist label.[6]
Porter was the top vote-getter, edging second-place Armstrong by 302 votes.[1] The rest of the candidates together captured less than 10 percent of the vote, but this was enough to keep either Porter or Armstrong from attaining a majority.[7]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen G. Porter | 35,206 | 45.6 | |
| Joseph G. Armstrong | 34,904 | 45.2 | |
| Frank I. Gosser | 5,418 | 7.0 | |
| William J. Van Essen | 1,464 | 1.9 | |
| Robert S. Glass | 152 | 0.2 | |
| Victor Breitenstein | 96 | 0.1 | |
| M.W. Clair | 1 | 0.0 | |
| Total votes | 77,241 | 100.0 | |
As no candidate received a majority of votes in the primary, a runoff election was held between the top two finishers, Porter and Armstrong.[1] This time Armstrong came out ahead of Porter, by a margin of 2,440 votes.[8]
| Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph G. Armstrong | 39,912 | 51.6 | |
| Stephen G. Porter | 37,472 | 48.4 | |
| Total votes | 77,384 | 100.0 | |
| Preceded by 1909 | Pittsburgh mayoral election 1913 | Succeeded by 1917 |
