Quick, 3 minute read for you history nerds.
This election vied three hot candidates together for the position of mayor of NY, at the time America’s 1 great city. Being mayor here meant great power, especially for capital vs labor. Of course there were candidates for both republicans and democrats. Republicans nominated no other than Teddy Roosevelt while dems had their man with a background in business and ties to the Tammany Hall political machine. Neither were particularly strong candidates at the time, Teddy being rather young still at only 28 and Tammany Hall was known to be corrupt.
The third contender was a pro labor party who nominated a man named Henry George.
Henry George became famous as an author of economics who argued that it takes many poor men to make one rich man, that in fact progress creates poverty. As you might imagine he was hugely popular with the working class citizen of NY.
When the campaigning for office began dems and reps didn’t take much interest in the labor party, relegating it to more of a sideshow. As the election cycle heated up and early polls came in, they realized that Henry George was getting alot more backing than anticipated. So much support in fact that they may actually pull off a dark horse victory!
On Election Day, rumors circulated about Henry George and the labor party attracting substantial voter turnouts, causing concern among the two major party bosses, who feared losing their government control. In response, Teddy Roosevelt's Republicans made an unconventional move, instructing their supporters to vote for the Democratic candidate to avoid splitting the vote. This unexpected display of bipartisanship proved successful as the pro-labor party suffered a defeat that only the swing vote from party to the other guaranteed.
It seems both parties would rather relinquish power to the other just to ensure victory doesn’t leave the two party system.
As they say, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”