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County results Smith: 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The1918 New York gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1918, to elect theGovernor andLieutenant Governor ofNew York, concurrently withelections to theUnited States Senate in other states andelections to theUnited States House of Representatives and variousstate andlocal elections.
Al Smith, president of theNew York City aldermen, was elected to the first of his four two-year terms as governor.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Charles S. Whitman (incumbent) | 295,471 | 71.31% | |
| Republican | Merton E. Lewis | 118,879 | 28.69% | |
| Total votes | 414,350 | 100% | ||
Following his failed candidacy for U.S. Senate in 1914, Franklin D. Roosevelt reconciled withTammany Hall. He delivered the keynote address at the society's 1917 Fourth of July celebration, and Tammany stalwarts John M. Riehle, William Kelley,Thomas J. McManus, and up-and-comerJimmy Walker endorsed him as a potential candidate for governor in 1918. PresidentWoodrow Wilson also privately urged Roosevelt to consider a campaign. However, he refused, believing that the ongoingGreat War would continue through the election and that 1918 would be a Republican year.[2]
Roosevelt instead endorsedWilliam Church Osborn,[3] though he would later claim to have engineered Smith's nomination himself.[4]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Al Smith | 199,752 | 85.91% | |
| Democratic | William C. Osborn | 32,761 | 14.09% | |
| Total votes | 232,513 | 100% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Al Smith | 1,009,936 | 47.36% | ||
| Republican | Charles S. Whitman (incumbent) | 995,094 | 46.66% | ||
| Socialist | Charles W. Ervin | 121,705 | 5.71% | ||
| Socialist Labor | Olive M. Johnson | 5,183 | 0.24% | ||
| Write-in | All others | 530 | 0.02% | ||
| Total votes | 2,132,448 | 100.00% | |||