1939 Chicago mayoral election

Republican nominee Dwight H. Green was strong opponent to the incumbent Kelly.[9] Green was a young and talented lawyer, as well as a political reformer. As an assistant district attorney, Green had helped to construct the income tax evasion case which led to mobster Al Capone's imprisonment.[1] Green ran a vigorous campaign which attempted to make the case against Kelly's political campaign for its connections with criminal elements.[1] His campaign also harshly criticized increases in the city tax rate.[1] Green's campaign, in a sense, was a four-month series of attacks on the Kelly-Patrick Nash political machine.[9] Kelly did not respond to Green's criticisms.[9] In fact, for the duration of his campaign, Kelly did not even utter his Republican opponent's name.[9] After his defeat in the primary, Thomas Courtney reluctantly agreed to endorse Kelly.[1]

Kelly received the backing of trade unions.[9] By 1939, a significant number of Chicago's African American voters had migrated their support from the Republican party to the Democratic Party.[9] Kelly would receive at least half the African American vote.[9] Additionally, many of those who supported or benefited from the New Deal policies of Democratic president Franklin Roosevelt supported Kelly's reelection.[9] On the eve of the election, Kelly received a further boost when former United States District Attorney George E. Q. Johnson declared in a radio address that he considered Chicago to no longer be a capital of crime, arguing that the city now led the nation in crime prevention, largely crediting Kelly and the city's police commissioner for this.[9]

Both parties attempted to spin the narrative of the election result to their advantage.[10] Democratic National Committee chairman James Farley declared that "As Illinois goes, so will the nation 1940."[10] However Republicans tried to argue that Green's performance, the best by a Republican Chicago mayoral candidate in a decade, demonstrated that there was promise for Republicans to carry Illinois' 29 electoral votes in 1940.[10] Green would go on to be elected Governor of Illinois the following year.[9]