Thomas J. O'Malley

Thomas James O'Malley (July 22, 1868 – May 27, 1936) was an Irish American railroad conductor, union delegate, and Democratic politician from Wisconsin. He was the 26th lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, serving from 1933 until his death in 1936. When elected in 1932, he was the first Wisconsin Democrat to be elected lieutenant governor since 1892. He was described in the 1933 Blue Book as the first "workingman" to hold statewide office in Wisconsin. At the same time he was elected lieutenant governor, his son Thomas D. P. O'Malley was elected a U.S. congressman.

Early life Thomas O'Malley was born in Menasha, Wisconsin, in July 1868, to an Irish Catholic family. He was raised and educated there, attending public and parochial schools. As a young man he went to work at several odd jobs, including hotel clerk and news agent, before becoming employed in the railroad industry.

O'Malley was serving as acting governor in early March 1933, with Governor Albert G. Schmedeman in Washington, D.C., for the presidential inauguration. His time as acting governor coincided with an escalating banking crisis in the midst of the Great Depression. On March 2, 1933, as acting governor, O'Malley issued a proclamation declaring a bank holiday requiring all banks to close. He modified his order six days later to allow some reopening of banks consistent with recent actions of the state's Banking Review Board.

As presiding officer of the Senate, he case a number of tie-breaking votes against his party's priorities, often finding common cause with the progressive Republican faction. He also engaged in a bitter feud with Republican state senator Bernhard Gettelman, and the two nearly got into a fist fight after a series of remarks on the Senate floor; they had to be restrained by other senators.

During campaigning the 1934 campaign, he acted as a ceremonial conductor on President Franklin Roosevelt's train while it traveled between Milwaukee and Chicago. O'Malley faced a primary challenge from Robert C. Johnson, the state administrator of the Civil Works Administration, but prevailed with 63% of the vote. Despite winning the primary, he was abandoned by the state party apparatus in the 1934 general election. He went on to win re-election without their support, though assisted by the emergence of the Wisconsin Progressive Party causing a three-way split of the major party votes.

O'Malley continued to frustrate members of his party's leadership and often acted in concert with the new Progressive majority under Governor

In 1936, O'Malley informed the Wisconsin State Journal that he planned to run for Governor of Wisconsin later that year on the Democratic Party ticket. But just a few days later, on May 27, 1936, he died of a heart attack while on vacation in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Personal life and family Thomas J. O'Malley was one of at least ten children born to Irish American immigrants Patrick and Anna ( Holland) O'Malley.

Thomas J. O'Malley married Mary Gertrude Walsh on October 30, 1901, in Chicago. They had at least six children together. Their eldest son, Thomas D. P. O'Malley, served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, later he was a federal appointee in the U.S. Department of Labor.

Electoral history Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor (1932, 1934)