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Henry Horner

Henry Horner (30 November 1878-6 October 1940) was the Democratic Governor of Illinois from 9 January 1933 to 6 October 1940, succeeding Louis Lincoln Emmerson and preceding John Henry Stelle.

Biography[]

Henry Horner was born "Henry Levy" in Chicago, Illinois in 1878, and he assumed his mother's surname after his parents' divorce in 1883. He became a lawyer before serving as a probate judge from 1915 to 1931 and as Governor from 1933 to 1940. He became Illinois' first Jewish governor, and he signed Illinois' first permanent sales tax into effect in 1933. He was strongly committed to both fiscal conservatism and the needs of the institutionalized, and he became rivals with Chicago mayor Edward Joseph Kelly for cracking down on graft and the patronage system. Helped by a large downstate vote, he defeated a pro-machine primary challenger in 1936. He died of a stroke in 1940.

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