Paul Francis Cantwell (September 15, 1927 – June 30, 1997) was an American politician, active in Indianapolis, who served as a Democratic member of the Indiana House of Representatives.

[2] In 1965, he was hired to work as an administrative assistant for Congressman Andrew Jacobs Jr. in Washington, D.C.[2] Beginning in 1966, Cantwell served as a Marion County Commissioner.

[8][9][10] In 1975, Cantwell was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit arguing that the legislation creating Unigov denied certain voters the equal protection guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

[12] The lawsuit was unsuccessful, with the plaintiffs losing the case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

[11] Cantwell resigned from the city council to focus on his campaign as the Democratic nominee in the 1979 Indianapolis mayoral election.

Cantwell lost to incumbent Republican William H. Hudnut III in what was reported to have been the greatest margin of defeat for a Democratic candidate in an Indianapolis mayoral election in 150 years.