James Francis Carey (August 19, 1867 in Haverhill, Massachusetts — December 31, 1938) was an American cobbler and Socialist politician from Massachusetts. Carey's political activism began when, as a shoemaker, he joined the International Boot and Shoemakers' Union; in 1895, he chaired a convention in Boston which merged three national shoemaker unions into one. He was an activist in the Socialist Labor Party of America, and later in the Socialist Party of America. He served in a number of leading roles with the Socialist Party of Massachusetts. In 1898, when he was elected to the Common Council of Haverhill, Massachusetts from Ward 5, Carey became the first socialist elected to municipal office in the United States.