Josephat T. Benoit (March 3, 1900 – May 14, 1976) was a Canadian-born American journalist and politician who served as the 41st mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire, from 1944 to 1961.
He received two Ph.D.s in his lifetime: one in philosophy from the Université de Montréal in 1921, the other in political economy and sociology from the Sorbonne in 1935.
He moved to Manchester in 1937 and took the position of editor-in-chief of L'Avenir National, a French-language daily newspaper.
He worked as an organizer, speaker and French newspaper publisher for Roosevelt-for-President during the United States presidential elections of 1932 and 1936.
In this capacity, he was chosen as a delegate to the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term.
[2] He was re-elected mayor in 1945 and, having completed only one term, launched an unsuccessful bid for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district in 1946 against sitting Republican Chester E.
He supported the establishment of public housing in Manchester and opposed fluoridation of the city's water supply.