1979 Chicago mayoral election

1979 Chicago mayoral election

← 1977 (special) April 3, 1979 1983 →
Turnout61%[1] Increase 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.

  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. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hautzinger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).