1928 United States presidential election in Oregon

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1928 United States presidential election in Oregon
Flag of Oregon.svg
  1924 November 6, 1928 1932  
  Herbert Hoover - NARA - 532049.jpg Unsuccessful 1928.jpg
Nominee Herbert Hoover Al Smith
Party Republican Democratic
Home state California New York
Running mate Charles Curtis Joseph T. Robinson
Electoral vote50
Popular vote205,341109,223
Percentage64.18%34.14%

Oregon Presidential Election Results 1928.svg
County results
Hoover
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%

The 1928 United States presidential election in Oregon took place on November 6, 1928, as part of the 1928 United States presidential election. Voters chose five representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Contents

Outside a few presidential and gubernatorial elections like that of 1922 influenced by the Ku Klux Klan, Oregon was a virtually one-party Republican state during the “System of 1896”, [1] where the only competition was via Republican primaries. [2] Apart from Woodrow Wilson’s two elections, during the first of which the GOP was severely divided, no Democrat since William Jennings Bryan in 1900 had carried a single county in the state.

In 1924 Oregon had nonetheless been the fifth-strongest of the fifteen Western and Plains States for Democrat John W. Davis behind Ozark mountaineer-dominated Nebraska, Mormon Utah and southern-leaning New Mexico and Arizona. Moreover, although maverick Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. fared less well than in the other Pacific States, he still gained nearly one in four of Oregon's ballots as an independent. However, when La Follette died in 1925 his family endorsed New York City Catholic Democrat Al Smith, [3] towards whose faith Oregon's largely Puritan (in the northwest) or Ozark Methodist (in the south and east), Anglo-Saxon [4] and fiercely anti-Catholic populace was strongly hostile. [5] This had been seen in a notorious law outlawing private religious schools under Klan-supported Governor Walter M. Pierce, whose decision was viewed unconstitutional by both the Oregon Supreme Court in 1924 and federally in Pierce v. Society of Sisters a year later. [6]

Despite this severe wariness, [7] Smith won the state's Democratic presidential primary against token opposition from Missouri Senator James Reed [8] and Montana Senator Thomas Walsh, whilst former Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover won the state's Republican primary unopposed with over six times as many voters. [9] From the beginning polls showed opposition to Smith's Catholicism and anti-Prohibition views as very strong in Oregon, [10] and neither major party would campaign in the state during the fall. October polls showed Hoover winning the state by a two-to-one margin and Smith gaining no more than a quarter of the La Follette vote. As of 2020, this is the final presidential election in Oregon in which a Republican carried all of the state's counties. [11]

Whereas in more Catholic states of the northern “Frost Belt” like Wisconsin, North Dakota and Minnesota Smith was able to revive a moribund Democratic Party at a presidential level, [12] Oregon's smaller but still significant La Follette electorate concentrated in the lower Willamette Valley and arch-isolationist Southern Oregon balked at voting for a Catholic. [13] Consequently, Republican nominee Hoover was able to gain 13.17 percent upon Calvin Coolidge’s 1924 performance in Oregon and become the fifth Republican in seven presidential elections to sweep all Oregon’s counties.

This would be the last occasion until Donald Trump in 2016 that Columbia County voted for a Republican presidential candidate. [14] [15]

Results

Presidential Candidate Running Mate PartyElectoral Vote (EV)Popular Vote (PV)
Herbert Hoover of California Charles Curtis Republican 5 [16] 205,34164.18%
Al Smith Joseph T. Robinson Democratic 0109,22334.14%
Norman Thomas James Maurer Socialist Principles Independent 02,7200.85%
Verne L. Reynolds Jeremiah Crowley Socialist Labor 01,5640.49%
William Z. Foster Benjamin Gitlow Independent 01,0940.34%

Results by county

CountyHerbert Clark Hoover
Republican
Alfred Emmanuel Smith
Democratic
Norman Mattoon Thomas
Socialist Principles Independent
Verne L. Reynolds
Socialist Labor
William Z. Foster
Independent
MarginTotal votes cast [17]
#%#%#%#%#%#%
Baker 3,72165.52%1,86132.77%641.13%220.39%110.19%1,86032.75%5,679
Benton 4,60575.55%1,41223.17%370.61%170.28%240.39%3,19352.39%6,095
Clackamas 9,21659.51%5,91838.22%1571.01%1300.84%650.42%3,29821.30%15,486
Clatsop 4,08763.33%2,20834.21%310.48%370.57%911.41%1,87929.11%6,454
Columbia 3,51965.21%1,77532.89%340.63%440.82%240.44%1,74432.32%5,396
Coos 4,92960.66%3,04037.41%620.76%670.82%280.34%1,88923.25%8,126
Crook 87763.46%48735.24%100.72%40.29%40.29%39028.22%1,382
Curry 69459.16%45338.62%141.19%40.34%80.68%24120.55%1,173
Deschutes 2,81560.83%1,70236.78%290.63%771.66%50.11%1,11324.05%4,628
Douglas 5,60970.52%2,19127.55%510.64%550.69%480.60%3,41842.97%7,954
Gilliam 88062.50%51536.58%60.43%20.14%50.36%36525.92%1,408
Grant 1,41174.03%46924.61%130.68%100.52%30.16%94249.42%1,906
Harney 95260.60%60038.19%80.51%60.38%50.32%35222.41%1,571
Hood River 1,80665.22%90532.68%180.65%150.54%250.90%90132.54%2,769
Jackson 8,05375.43%2,46323.07%880.82%410.38%310.29%5,59052.36%10,676
Jefferson 48159.31%30837.98%60.74%80.99%80.99%17321.33%811
Josephine 2,62571.31%95926.05%441.20%360.98%170.46%1,66645.26%3,681
Klamath 4,45361.28%2,72137.44%320.44%310.43%300.41%1,73223.83%7,267
Lake 1,01463.61%54934.44%100.63%90.56%120.75%46529.17%1,594
Lane 13,64774.96%4,21323.14%1790.98%930.51%730.40%9,43451.82%18,205
Lincoln 2,10057.33%1,46439.97%461.26%320.87%210.57%63617.36%3,663
Linn 5,87767.62%2,64530.43%720.83%450.52%520.60%3,23237.19%8,691
Malheur 2,16467.35%1,01631.62%180.56%110.34%40.12%1,14835.73%3,213
Marion 11,75461.96%6,99836.89%1020.54%690.36%480.25%4,75625.07%18,971
Morrow 1,09364.87%54332.23%231.36%140.83%120.71%55032.64%1,685
Multnomah 75,73161.64%45,17736.77%1,2190.99%4470.36%2850.23%30,55424.87%122,859
Polk 3,24464.44%1,72434.25%300.60%200.40%160.32%1,52030.19%5,034
Sherman 75966.35%37532.78%20.17%50.44%30.26%38433.57%1,144
Tillamook 2,57066.75%1,20431.27%320.83%280.73%160.42%1,36635.48%3,850
Umatilla 5,27767.83%2,39030.72%590.76%340.44%200.26%2,88737.11%7,780
Union 3,21959.13%2,15439.57%260.48%300.55%150.28%1,06519.56%5,444
Wallowa 1,32656.86%93540.09%391.67%190.81%130.56%39116.77%2,332
Wasco 2,74660.85%1,69937.65%300.66%210.47%170.38%1,04723.20%4,513
Washington 6,16262.37%3,54435.87%910.92%550.56%270.27%2,61826.50%9,879
Wheeler 67775.06%22424.83%10.11%00.00%00.00%45350.22%902
Yamhill 5,24867.97%2,38230.85%380.49%250.32%280.36%2,86637.12%7,721
Totals205,34164.18%109,22334.14%2,7200.85%1,5640.49%1,0940.34%96,11830.04%319,942

See also

References

  1. Burnham, Walter Dean; ‘The System of 1896’, in Kleppner, Paul (editor), The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 176-179 ISBN   0-313-21379-8
  2. Murray, Keith; ‘Issues and Personalities of Pacific Northwest Politics, 1889-1950’, The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3 (July 1950), pp. 213-233
  3. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 59 ISBN   0-7864-2217-3
  4. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 482 ISBN   978-0-691-16324-6
  5. Allerfeldt, Kristofer (2003). Race, Radicalism, Religion, and Restriction: Immigration in the Pacific Northwest, 1890-1924. Praeger. pp. 59–62. ISBN   978-0-275-97854-9.
  6. Fox, Robert A. and Buchanan, Nina K. (editors); The Wiley Handbook of School Choice
  7. Lyon, william C.; ‘Smith Is Favoured in the Northwest’;
  8. ‘Smith Retains Lead Over Walsh in Oregon’; New York Times, 19 May 1928, p. 3
  9. Wood, T.R. ‘Explaining the Smith Vote: Republican Swing to Governor May Not Outnumber Hoover Democrats’, Letter to The New York Times, May 23, 1928
  10. ‘Found Hoover Strong: Brooklyn Republican Reports Opposition to Smith in West’; New York Times, July 27, 1928, p. 2
  11. ‘Digest Poll Gives Hoover 44 States’; New York Times, October 19, 1928, p. 4
  12. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 426
  13. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 486
  14. Wheel, Robert (October 6, 2016). "The 2016 Streak Breakers". Center for Politics. Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  15. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  16. "1928 Presidential General Election Results – Oregon". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  17. Our Campaigns; OR US Presidential Election Race, November 06, 1928