1971 Chicago mayoral election

This was the final Chicago mayoral election held before the ratification of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

On their party's primary ballots on February 23, 1971, both candidates ran unopposed.{{Cite news | author = John Kifner |date=1971-02-28 |title=DALEY MAINTAINS COUNCIL CONTROL |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/28/archives/daley-maintains-council-control-but-independents-in-chicago-find.html |access-date=2022-11-06 |issn=0362-4331}} 45.72% of registered voters participated in the city's municipal primary elections.{{cite web |last1=Franklin |first1=Tim |title=Voter turnout of 80 percent dwarfs record |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/387728419 |url-access=subscription |via=Newspapers.com |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=3 April 2023 |language=en |date=February 23, 1983}}

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In December 1970, Daley, then 68 years old, announced he would seek a fifth term after much speculation by the public.{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Adam |last2=Taylor |first2=Elizabeth |title=American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley – His Battle for Chicago and the Nation |date=2001 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-7595-2427-9 |pages=290–294 |url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=nGem2g467GAC |language=en}} In a press conference announcing his reelection campaign, Daley remarked: "This election won't be won by speeches. It will have to be won by hard, hard work." He won the Democratic primary on February 23, 1971, with about 375,000 votes, his lowest tally since 1959, but a figure nine times that of Friedman's primary tally.

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Richard Friedman, a 41-year-old independent Democrat running as a Republican, was an attorney and former executive director of the watchdog organization Better Government Association.{{Cite news | author = Seth S. King |date=1971-04-07 |title=Daley Wins Fifth Term in Chicago by a Big Majority |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/07/archives/daley-wins-fifth-term-in-chicago-by-a-big-majority-daley-elected-to.html |access-date=2022-11-06 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|url=https://people.com/archive/two-crusaders-reporter-and-politician-give-chicago-a-lesson-in-marital-clout-vol-3-no-17/|title=Two Crusaders, Reporter and Politician, Give Chicago a Lesson in Marital Clout}} Friedman was endorsed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Daley was "lavishly endorsed" by many of the city's businessmen and civic leaders, including many who usually contribute to and vote for Republicans. The Republican Party had hoped that Friedman as a reformist would be able to build a coalition of Republicans and independents to mount a strong challenge to Daley, but he was nevertheless the "decided underdog". Chicago had not elected a Republican as mayor since William Hale Thompson won in 1927, before Friedman was born.{{Cite news | author = Seth S. King |date=1971-03-28 |title=Mayor Daley Heads for His Fourth Re-election |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/28/archives/mayor-daley-heads-for-his-fourth-reelection.html |access-date=2022-11-06 |issn=0362-4331}}

In the days ahead of voting on April 6, The New York Times described Chicago's public health facilities as "among the worst in the nation", with the infant mortality rate among the highest.[https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/28/archives/mayor-daley-heads-for-his-fourth-reelection.html New York Times, Mayor Daley Heads for His Fourth Re-election, March 28, 1971] In a sign of accelerating "white flight" to the suburbs, the city's white population had decreased by up to 50,000 each year prior. Daley's critics pointed to low-income housing policies that confined Black Chicagoans in two underserved, poor areas, and Friedman focused his campaign attack on Daley's low-income housing policy. One in eight city residents was on welfare at the time. But, as The New York Times noted, "unless a voter is black, poor, rebellious, or involved in some contretemps with a Democratic precinct leader, his dissatisfaction with Mr. Daley is likely to be minute."

Daley's 740,137 votes more than doubled his opponent's 318,059, and Daley won in all but two of the city's 50 wards. Friedman carried the wards of Hyde Park and Armitage Street. The total votes were some 11,000 fewer than the previous mayoral race. {{Election box begin no change| title=Mayor of Chicago 1971 election{{cite web |title=Mayoral election results in Chicago |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/386930397 |via=Newspapers.com |work=Chicago Tribune |access-date=9 March 2021 |language=en |url-access=subscription |date=3 Apr 1979}}{{cite web |title=Board of Election Commissioners For the City of Chicago Mayoral Election Results Since 1900 General Elections Only |url=http://66.107.4.19/ |publisher=Chicago Board of Election Commissioners |access-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040718031857/http://66.107.4.19/ |archive-date=July 18, 2004 |date=18 July 2004 |url-status=dead}} (General election)}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Richard J. Daley (incumbent)

|votes = 740,137

|percentage = 70.08

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Republican Party (United States)

|candidate = Richard E. Friedman

|votes = 315,969

|percentage = 29.92}}

{{Election box turnout no change

|votes = 1,056,106

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box end}}

{{reflist}}

{{1971 United States elections}}

{{Illinois elections}}

{{Richard J. Daley}}

{{Mayors of Chicago|state=collapsed}}

Mayoral election

Category:Mayoral elections in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago

Category:20th century in Chicago

Category:Richard J. Daley

Chicago mayoral election