Editing Italian Americans (section)

===Politics===
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In the 1930s, Italian Americans voted heavily [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=See Rudolph |first1=J. Vecoli |year=1996 |title=The Coming Of Age Of Italian Americans: 1945-1974", ''Ethnicity'' 1978 5(2) 119-147; and Stefano Luconi, "Machine Politics and the Consolidation of the Roosevelt Majority: The Case of Italian Americans in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=32–59}}</ref> [[Carmine DeSapio]] in the late 1940s became the first to break the Irish Catholic hold on [[Tammany Hall]] since the 1870s. By 1951, more than twice as many Italian American legislators as in 1936 served in the six states with the most Italian Americans.<ref name="lubell1956">{{cite book |author=Lubell, Samuel |title=The Future of American Politics |publisher=Anchor Press |year=1956 |edition=2nd |page=70 |ol=6193934M}}</ref> Since 1968, voters have split about evenly between the Democratic (37 percent) and the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (36 percent) parties.<ref>{{cite web |date=October 14, 2007 |title=NIAF. Two Days of Italian/American Affairs |url=http://www.i-italy.org/645/niaf-two-days-italian-american-affairs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216171254/http://www.i-italy.org/645/niaf-two-days-italian-american-affairs |archive-date=February 16, 2015 |access-date=September 2, 2010 |publisher=I-italy.org}}</ref>  The [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] includes Italian Americans who are leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties. In 2007, [[Nancy Pelosi]] (D-CA) became the first woman and Italian American [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives]]. Former [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] New York City mayor [[Rudy Giuliani]] was a candidate for the U.S. presidency in the [[2008 United States presidential election|2008 election]]. [[Mike Pompeo]], American politician, diplomat, businessman, and attorney, served as the 70th [[United States secretary of state]] from 2018 to 2021. [[Ron DeSantis]], governor of Florida since 2019, is of Italian ancestry.
[[Geraldine Ferraro]] was the first woman on a major party ticket, running for [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] as a Democrat in 1984. Two justices of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] have been Italian Americans, [[Antonin Scalia]] and [[Samuel Alito]]. Both were appointed by Republican presidents, Scalia by [[Ronald Reagan]] and Alito by [[George W. Bush]].

The [[Italian American Congressional Delegation]] currently includes 30 members of Congress who are of Italian descent. They are joined by more than 150 associate members, who are not Italian American but have large Italian American constituencies. Since its founding in 1975, the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) has worked closely with the bicameral and bipartisan [[Italian American Congressional Delegation]], which is led by co-chairs Rep. [[Bill Pascrell]] of New Jersey and Rep. [[Pat Tiberi]] of Ohio.

By the 1890s, [[Italian Americans in New York City]] were mobilizing as a political force. They helped elect [[Fiorello La Guardia]] (a Republican) as mayor in 1933, and helped reelect him in 1937 and 1941. They rallied for [[Vincent R. Impellitteri]] (a Democrat) in 1950, and [[Rudolph W. Giuliani]] (a Republican) in 1989 (when he lost), and in 1993 and 1997 (when he won). All three Italian Americans aggressively fought to reduce crime in the city; each was known for his good relations with the city's powerful labor unions.<ref>Salvatore J. LaGumina, "New York City Italian American Mayors, La Guardia, Impellitteri, and Giuliani: Comparisons, Contrasts and Curiosities", ''Proceedings of the American Italian Historical Association'', Nov 2000, Vol. 33, pp 24–44</ref>  La Guardia and Giuliani have had the reputation among specialists on urban politics as two of the best mayors in American history.<ref>Sam Roberts (April 18, 2008), [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E2D81730F932A05751C1A9679C8B63 "The Giuliani Years: History; La Guardia's Legacy Is Formidable, but it May Be Surpassed"], ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>Thomas Kessner, ''Fiorello H. LaGuardia and the Making of Modern New York'' (1989)</ref> Democrat [[Bill de Blasio]], the third mayor of Italian ancestry, served as the 109th [[mayor of New York City]] for two terms, from 2014 to 2021. [[Mario Cuomo]] (a Democrat) served as the 52nd [[governor of New York]] for three terms, from 1983 to 1995. His son [[Andrew Cuomo]] was the 56th governor of New York and previously served as secretary of housing and urban development from 1997 to 2001 and as the attorney general of New York from 2007 to 2010.

However, in contrast to other ethnic groups, Italian Americans demonstrate a marked lack of [[ethnocentrism]] and long history of political [[individualism]], eschewing ethnic [[Voting bloc|bloc voting]], preferring to vote on the basis of individual candidates and issues, embracing maverick political candidates over ethnic loyalties. Popular New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in fact underperformed among his own demographic; in 1941, La Guardia even lost the Italian vote to his Irish opponent [[William O'Dwyer]]. In 1965, when New York Democrats backed [[Mario Procaccino]], an Italian-born candidate for city comptroller, Procaccino lost the Italian vote and won his election only because of support in Jewish voter precincts. In the [[1973 New York City mayoral election]], the son of Italian immigrants [[Mario Biaggi]] failed to unite Italian voters as an ethnic bloc the way his Jewish opponent [[Abraham Beame]] could do to win the Democratic primary.<ref name="Sowell" /> In the [[1962 Massachusetts gubernatorial election]], incumbent Italian American Governor [[John Volpe]] lost his re-election campaign by a razor-thin 0.2 percent—a final margin that could be more than sufficiently explained by Volpe polling only 51 percent among the state's significant [[History of Italian Americans in Boston|population of Italian Americans]], roughly half of whom voted for old-line [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestants|Anglo-Saxon Protestant]] [[Endicott Peabody]] over a fellow ethnic.<ref name="Sowell" />