1918 New York gubernatorial election

The 1918 New York gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1918, to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of New York, concurrently with elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

Al Smith, president of the New York City aldermen, was elected to the first of his four two-year terms as governor.

Candidates

 * Charles S. Whitman, incumbent governor
 * Merton E. Lewis, incumbent attorney general

Candidates

 * William C. Osborn, former chair of the New York Democratic Party
 * Al Smith, President of the New York City Board of Aldermen

Declined

 * Franklin D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy

Campaign
Following his failed candidacy for U.S. Senate in 1914, Franklin D. Roosevelt reconciled with Tammany 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-comer Jimmy Walker endorsed him as a potential candidate for governor in 1918. President Woodrow Wilson also privately urged Roosevelt to consider a campaign. However, he refused, believing that the ongoing Great War would continue through the election and that 1918 would be a Republican year.

Roosevelt instead endorsed William Church Osborn, though he would later claim to have engineered Smith's nomination himself.

Candidates

 * Charles W. Ervin (Socialist)
 * Olive M. Johnson, newspaper editor and political activist (Socialist Labor)
 * Al Smith, President of the New York City Board of Aldermen (Democratic)
 * Charles S. Whitman, incumbent governor (Republican)