In 1965, William F. Buckley Jr. decided to avenge the loss of Barry Goldwater to Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election by running for mayor of New York. His goal was to restore attention to conservatism as he understood it, and take votes from Republican John Lindsay, who he thought insufficiently principled.
Some called it a vanity project. (He finished a distant third with 13.36%, with Lindsay winning and Democrat Abe Beame coming in a close second.)
