The 1916 United States presidential election in Oregon took place on November7, 1916 as part of the 1916 United States presidential election in which all contemporary forty-eight states participated. Voters chose five electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Oregon had been in the 1900s solidified as a one-party Republican bastion, which it would remain at a Presidential level apart from the 1910s GOP split until Franklin D. Roosevelt rose to power in 1932,[1] and apart from a very short New Deal interlude at state level until the "Revolution of 1954". As of 1916, the state had not elected a Democratic Congressman since 1878, and between 1900 and 1954 Democratic representation in the Oregon legislature would never exceed fifteen percent except during the above-mentioned 1930s interlude,[2] so that Republican primaries would become the chief mode of competition.[3]
These were the first presidential primaries in Oregon in which women had the right to vote. Under Oregon law, a candidate could be placed on a party's primary ballot by petition. Only Woodrow Wilson appeared on the Democratic Party ballot. The Republican Party ballot included Charles Evans Hughes, Albert B. Cummins, and Theodore E. Burton.[7] Primaries for the vice presidential candidates were also held on the same day. On the Democratic ballot, Elliott Woolfolk Major of Missouri and Thomas R. Marshall of Indiana faced off, receiving 5,706 and 21,205 votes, respectively. On the Republican ballot, only William Grant Webster of Illinois appeared, allowing him to receive all 58,076 votes.[8]
A primary for the Democratic presidential candidate was held in Oregon on May 19, 1916. Only Woodrow Wilson appeared on the ballot for the Democratic primary, allowing him to receive all 27,898 votes.[8]
A primary for the Republican presidential candidate was held in Oregon on May 19, 1916. Unlike his opponents, Albert B. Cummins and Theodore E. Burton, Hughes did not campaign for himself in the state.[9] Before the primary, he had attempted to stop a petition circulating without his consent to place him on the ballot. In response to Hughes' protest, Secretary of State Ben W. Olcott refused to heed the petition. The matter was appealed to the courts, which ruled that a petition to place someone on the ballot could be submitted without that person's consent.[7]
During the campaign, supporters of the Bull Moose Party who wanted Theodore Roosevelt nominated by their own party as well as by the Republicans campaigned for Cummins in an attempt to get him to win the primary, thereby discrediting Hughes, who they believed would be a harder man to beat in the convention.[10]
Hughes won the primary with 58,764 votes to Cummins's 27,558 and Burton's 10,593.[7] According to The New York Times, voter turnout was estimated at roughly 70 percent of registered voters, with women playing a significant role in the outcome.[11] A Portland dispatch further reported that "the assertion is made that the women voted for HUGHES 3 to 1."[12]
↑Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division; Abstract of Votes Cast in the several counties in the State of Oregon at a General Election held on the Seventh Day of November, A.D. 1916, for Presidential Electors, Representatives in Congress
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