1979 Chicago mayoral election

1979 Chicago mayoral election

←  1977 (special) April 3, 1979 1983  →
Turnout	61% [1] 21 pp
Nominee Jane Byrne Wallace D. Johnson Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 700,874 137,664 Percentage 82.1% 16.1%
Mayor before election Michael A. Bilandic Democratic Elected Mayor Jane Byrne Democratic

The 1979 Chicago mayoral election was first the primary on February 27, 1979, which was followed by the general on April 3, 1979. The election saw the election of Chicago, Illinois' first female mayor, and the first female mayor of any major American city, Jane M. Byrne. Byrne defeated Republican Wallace Johnson by a landslide 66 percent margin of victory, winning more than 82 percent of the vote. ^[2] Byrne's 82% of the vote is the most any candidate has received in a Chicago mayoral election.

Byrne had won the Democratic Party's nomination by narrowly defeating incumbent mayor Michael A. Bilandic in the party's primary election.

Primaries and nominations

60.5% of registered voters participated in the primary elections. ^[3]

Democratic primary

The Cook County Democratic Party organization (run by the city Democratic political machine) had fully supported incumbent mayor Michael A. Bilandic's bid for renomination for election to a full term as mayor. ^[4] Byrne, whom Bilandic had previously fired from the post of the city's Commissioner of Consumer Sales in 1977, ^{[4] [5]} had launched an underdog challenge to Bilandic. In what was regarded to be a major upset to the Chicago Democratic machine, Jane Byrne succeeded in pulling off an insurgent challenge to Bilandic. ^[4]

Turnout in the primary was among the greatest in Chicago mayoral history. ^[4] By some reports, turnout was 839,443, which was 58.97% of Chicago's 1,423,476 voters. ^[4] Turnout exceeded the average mayoral primary election turnout in the years since 1955 by more than 10 percentage points. ^[4] Byrne was a first-time candidate for elected office. ^[6] She campaigned as a progressive reformer. Her campaign manager was Don Rose, who had previously served as the Chicago press secretary for Martin Luther King Jr. She attacked alderman such as Edward M. Burke and Ed Vrdolyak as an "evil cabal" who ran the city's government. Her candidacy was seen as a longshot. ^[2] Byrne also pledged that as mayor her cabinet would differ from Bilandic's. ^[4]

Byrne was endorsed by Jesse Jackson. ^[7] Byrne had lambasted Bilandic's government's slow response to the 1979 Chicago blizzard, criticism which was greatly credited with fueling her upset victory. ^{[8] [9]} Polls, up to the election day, had shown Bilandic in the lead. ^[2]

After the result, The New York Times reported,

[Bilandic's] surprising defeat by an underfinanced newcomer to elective politics inevitably raised questions about the effectiveness and the future of what is perhaps the last of the old‐time, big‐city Democratic machines. ^[4]

However, The New York Times also noted that, despite running against the Democratic political machine's mayoral candidate, Byrne had expressed "little appetite for dismantling the organization." ^[4]

Democratic primary results

Chicago Democratic Party Mayoral Primary, 1979 [10] [11]
Candidate		Votes	%
	Jane Byrne	412,909	51.04
	Michael A. Bilandic (incumbent)	396,194	48.96
Majority		16,775	2.07
Total		809,043	100.0

Democratic primary results by ward

Byrne won a majority of the vote in 29 of the city's 50 wards, with Bilandic winning a majority in the remaining 21 wards. ^[11] She swept the city's African-American wards, winning more than 2/3 of votes from them. ^[4]

Results by ward [11]
Ward	Jane Byrne		Michael Bilandic		Total
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes
1	4,049	32.7%	8,338	67.3%	12,387
2	6,247	51.6%	5,858	48.4%	12,105
3	5,716	55.3%	4,628	44.7%	10,344
4	6,402	57.7%	4,701	42.3%	11,103
5	10,304	73.8%	3,654	26.2%	13,958
5	10,168	68.6%	4,645	31.4%	14,813
7	7,865	65.5%	4,149	34.5%	12,014
8	12,327	70.7%	5,116	29.3%	17,443
9	9,286	67.2%	4,542	32.8%	13,828
10	8,580	38.7%	13,592	61.3%	22,172
11	3,526	13.8%	22,117	86.2%	25,643
12	8,838	43.9%	11,317	56.1%	20,155
13	10,451	38.2%	16,938	61.8%	27,389
14	6,048	34.8%	11,334	65.2%	17,382
15	7,865	47.8%	8,579	52.2%	16,444
16	5,803	53.0%	5,139	47.0%	10,942
17	8,024	68.9%	3,619	31.1%	11,643
18	10,903	50.6%	10,659	49.4%	21,562
19	10,395	44.0%	13,223	56.0%	23,618
20	6,221	58.0%	4,514	42.0%	10,735
21	13,516	71.4%	5,405	28.6%	18,921
22	5,179	48.9%	5,422	51.1%	10,601
23	10,814	43.6%	14,003	56.4%	24,817
24	4,446	49.9%	4,458	50.1%	8,904
25	3,365	31.1%	7,455	68.9%	10,820
26	4,632	35.1%	8,572	64.9%	13,204
27	3,564	32.4%	7,450	67.6%	11,014
28	4,588	54.3%	3,860	45.7%	8,448
29	5,059	55.8%	4,004	44.2%	9,063
30	7,957	52.4%	7,229	47.6%	15,186
31	5,452	40.3%	8,086	59.7%	13,538
32	6,000	45.8%	7,099	54.2%	13,099
33	6,779	46.2%	7,899	53.8%	14,678
34	9,414	56.6%	7,233	43.4%	16,647
35	10,973	63.4%	6,329	36.6%	17,302
36	10,788	44.9%	13,265	55.1%	24,053
37	7,177	55.4%	5,774	44.6%	12,951
38	11,920	55.1%	9,723	44.9%	21,643
39	8,864	49.5%	9,053	50.5%	17,917
40	9,386	56.4%	7,268	43.6%	16,654
41	14,847	58.2%	10,649	41.8%	25,496
42	7,943	49.6%	8,085	50.4%	16,028
43	11,915	61.4%	7,499	38.6%	19,414
44	9,448	61.1%	6,027	38.9%	15,475
45	12,843	54.6%	10,690	45.4%	23,533
46	8,825	60.8%	5,698	39.2%	14,523
47	8,020	43.2%	10,542	56.8%	18,562
48	7,970	57.6%	5,855	42.4%	13,825
49	10,376	59.0%	7,214	41.0%	17,590
50	11,875	59.6%	8,039	40.4%	19,914
Totals	412,953	51.0%	396,547	49.0%	809,500

Republican primary

Wallace D. Johnson, an investment banker who was the chairman of the firm Howe, Barnes & Johnson Inc., ^{[4] [12]} won a landslide victory in the Republican primary over his sole opponent. The total number of votes cast in the Republican primary was 21,144, equal to roughly 2.6% the 809,043 votes cast in the Democratic primary. Johnson had, from 1970 through 1976, been a member of the Chicago Transit Authority board, where he was involved in creating the Super Transfer and Culture Bus, and in 1973 helped to lay the groundwork for the creation of the Regional Transportation Authority. ^[12]

Republican primary results

Chicago Republican Party Mayoral Primary, 1979 [13]
Candidate		Votes	%	+/-
	Wallace D. Johnson	18,268	86.39	N/A
	Raymond G. Wardingley	2,877	13.61	N/A
Majority		15,391	72.79	N/A
Total		21,144	100.0	N/A

Socialist Workers nomination

The Socialist Workers Party nominated Andrew Pulley. Pulley was a steelworker that had been the party's vice presidential nominee in 1972. ^{[14] [15]}

General election

Democrat Byrne had the support of such trade unions as the Chicago Federation of Labor and United Auto Workers. ^[15] Republican nominee Johnson failed to attract much support. Socialist Workers Party nominee Pulley sought to convince voters that neither Democrats nor Republicans offered an adequate alternative for workers. ^[15] He argued that, despite having support of trade unions, Byrne was "an anti-labor, anti-strike candidate". ^[15] During his campaign, he urged trade union members to organize to form a labor party in Chicago, urging them to run independent labor candidates in the following year's congressional elections. ^[15] Pulley, himself a member of United Steelworkers 1066 at U.S. Steel's Gary Works, argued, "If we don't act to establish a political party, the unions will be destroyed." ^[15]

Despite being its nominee nominee, Johnson's campaign received little organizational assistance from the Republican Party. ^[16]

Some aldermen (including Edward M. Burke and Edward Vrdolyak, both of whom were in 1979 considered to longtime political foes of Byrne) as well as some Democratic committeemen were accused of trying to work against Byrne in order to decrease the level of the vote with which she would win election. Any such would have proved for naught, however, when the results came in. ^[16]

General election results

With 82.05% of the vote, Byrne won the largest vote share in the history of Chicago mayoral elections ^[17] (excluding the, invalid, April 1876 election).

The election of Byrne (a resident of the city's North Side) made her the first mayor since 1933 not to hail from the Bridgeport neighborhood. The previous four mayors (Edward J. Kelly, Martin Kennelly, Richard J. Daley, and Bilandic) all hailed from Bridgeport. ^[16]

Mayor of Chicago 1979 ^{[18] [19]} (general election)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Jane Byrne	700,874	82.05
	Republican	Wallace D. Johnson	137,663	16.12
	Socialist Workers	Andrew Pulley	15,625	1.83
Turnout			854,162

General election results by ward

Byrne won a majority of the vote in each of the city's 50 wards. ^[18] In fact, Byrne won all but two of the city's 3,100 precincts (with the remaining two being carried by Johnson). ^{[12] [20]}

Results by ward [18]
Ward	Jane Byrne (Democratic Party)		Wallace D. Johnson (Republican Party)		Andrew Pulley (Socialist Workers Party)		Total
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes
1	10,799	86.4%	1,497	12.0%	197	1.6%	12,493
2	11,273	89.3%	863	6.8%	494	3.9%	12,630
3	9,050	91.2%	603	6.1%	271	2.7%	9,924
4	10,419	87.0%	1,048	8.8%	502	4.2%	11,969
5	11,929	79.8%	2,048	13.7%	971	6.5%	14,948
6	14,026	89.5%	1,005	6.4%	639	4.1%	15,670
7	10,972	81.9%	1,956	14.6%	476	3.6%	13,404
8	15,881	89.3%	1,078	6.1%	823	4.6%	17,782
9	13,441	89.2%	1,078	7.2%	548	3.6%	15,067
10	15,176	76.0%	4,411	22.1%	372	1.9%	19,959
11	22,511	89.6%	2,448	9.7%	160	0.6%	25,119
12	16,583	78.8%	4,325	20.5%	140	0.7%	21,048
13	22,797	78.5%	6,113	21.0%	131	0.5%	29,041
14	13,957	83.7%	2,539	15.2%	185	1.1%	16,681
15	14,228	83.5%	2,498	14.7%	323	1.9%	17,049
16	10,132	92.4%	543	5.0%	289	2.6%	10,964
17	11,961	90.7%	827	6.3%	396	3.0%	13,184
18	18,453	83.5%	3,280	14.8%	374	1.7%	22,107
19	18,441	75.3%	5,815	23.7%	231	0.9%	24,487
20	10,729	90.6%	771	6.5%	344	2.9%	11,844
21	18,497	90.3%	1,139	5.6%	856	4.2%	20,492
22	9,459	85.1%	1,519	13.7%	140	1.3%	11,118
23	20,989	80.5%	4,926	18.9%	155	0.6%	26,070
24	8,389	93.1%	420	4.7%	202	2.2%	9,011
25	10,056	89.2%	1,113	9.9%	102	0.9%	11,271
26	11,392	86.4%	1,664	12.6%	131	1.0%	13,187
27	11,786	94.9%	445	3.6%	191	1.5%	12,422
28	8,338	92.8%	423	4.7%	223	2.5%	8,984
29	8,870	91.3%	577	5.9%	265	2.7%	9,712
30	13,357	81.5%	2,890	17.6%	132	0.8%	16,379
31	12,886	90.0%	1,304	9.1%	129	0.9%	14,319
32	11,282	86.4%	1,642	12.6%	134	1.0%	13,058
33	12,608	83.9%	2,266	15.1%	157	1.0%	15,031
34	15,971	91.7%	786	4.5%	668	3.8%	17,425
35	15,090	75.1%	4,820	24.0%	191	1.0%	20,101
36	20,790	77.6%	5,827	21.7%	189	0.7%	26,806
37	11,492	87.3%	1,347	10.2%	322	2.4%	13,161
38	18,188	74.3%	6,150	25.1%	136	0.6%	24,474
39	14,929	77.2%	4,262	22.0%	147	0.8%	19,338
40	13,063	74.7%	4,229	24.2%	191	1.1%	17,483
41	19,852	70.6%	8,119	28.9%	163	0.6%	28,134
42	13,876	77.1%	3,867	21.5%	260	1.4%	18,003
43	12,944	73.3%	4,294	24.3%	429	2.4%	17,667
44	13,622	77.7%	3,446	19.7%	453	2.6%	17,521
45	19,786	72.7%	7,259	26.7%	183	0.7%	27,228
46	13,133	77.7%	3,271	19.4%	493	2.9%	16,897
47	15,669	79.5%	3,863	19.6%	174	0.9%	19,706
48	11,335	74.5%	3,568	23.4%	317	2.1%	15,220
49	13,419	79.0%	3,167	18.6%	409	2.4%	16,995
50	17,048	79.0%	4,314	20.0%	217	1.0%	21,579
Totals	700,874	82.1%	137,663	16.1%	15,625	1.8%	854,162

References

1. Denvir, Daniel (May 22, 2015). "Voter Turnout in U.S. Mayoral Elections Is Pathetic, But It Wasn't Always This Way". Bloomberg.com. City Lab (The Atlantic). Retrieved December 11, 2018.
2. Hautzinger, Daniel (March 12, 2019). "Chicago's First (And Only) Female Mayor". WTTW Chicago. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
3. Franklin, Tim (February 23, 1983). "Voter turnout of 80 percent dwarfs record" . Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 3, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
4. Kneeland, Douglas A. (March 1, 1979). "Jane Byrne's Defeat of Mayor Shatters Image of Democratic Machine in Chicago". The New York Times .
5. "Kentucky New Era - Google News Archive Search".
6. Mouat, Lucia (August 23, 1982). "Jane Byrne: off and running for reelection in Chicago". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
7. Felsenthal, Carol (November 14, 2014). "Remembering Jane Byrne". www.chicagomag.com. Chicago magazine. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
8. "Mayor Jane Byrne (1979-1983)". November 13, 2012.
9. "Chicago elects Byrne". Bangor Daily News. Bangor, Me. April 4, 1979. p. 1. Retrieved June 17, 2012– via Google News Archive.
10. "Our Campaigns - Chicago Mayor - D Primary Race - Feb 27, 1979".
11. "Election Results". Archived from the original on November 30, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
12. Heise, Kenan (December 3, 1993). "WALLACE JOHNSON, BANKER WHO RAN FOR MAYOR IN '79". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
13. "Our Campaigns - Chicago Mayor-R Primary Race - Feb 27, 1979". www.ourcampaigns.com.
14. Martin Waldron (January 2, 1972). "The Socialist Campaign: Low Funds, High Hopes". St. Petersburg Times. pp. 9–A.
15. Jenness, Doug (March 30, 1979). "Chicago socialist candidate: 'Why workers need a labor party now'" (PDF). The Militant. Vol. 43, no. 12. Retrieved June 7, 2020.
16. Kneeland, Douglas (April 4, 1979). "Jane Byrne, With Machine Help, Sweeps Mayoral Vote in Chicago". TheNew York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2025.
17. Peterson, Bill (April 4, 1979). "Jane Byrne Sweeps to Victory in Chicago's Mayoral Race". Washington Post. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
18. "Election Results for 1979 General Election, Mayor, Chicago, IL".
19. "Board of Election Commissioners For the City of Chicago Mayoral Election Results Since 1900 General Elections Only". Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. July 18, 2004. Archived from the original on July 18, 2004. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
20. Heise, Kenan (December 3, 1994). "Wallace Johnson, Banker Who Ran For Mayor In '79". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 27, 2020.