1904 United States presidential election in Oregon
The 1904 United States presidential election in Oregon took place on November 8, 1904. All contemporary 45 states were part of the 1904 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elections in Oregon | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
This election would solidify Oregon 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”. Democratic representation in the Oregon legislature would never exceed fifteen percent during this period,[2] and no Democrat other than Woodrow Wilson would henceforth carry even one county in the state before the Great Depression. Republican primaries would become the chief mode of competition: indeed Oregon became in this election year the first Western state to utilize the direct primary.[3]
President Roosevelt was extremely popular in Oregon because of his policies of reforming the railroads, creating a Department of Commerce and Labor and conserving the forest resources that were at the time heavily exploited by big business.[3] Parker's re-emphasis on the Gold Standard, which harked back to Grover Cleveland, aroused no enthusiasm in Oregon.[4] Nor did his opposition to Roosevelt's policy of imperialism in the Pacific,[5] with the result that Parker's showing was the worst-ever by any major-party nominee in Oregon except for his mentor Cleveland twelve years previously.[6] At the same time, Roosevelt's performance remains the best ever by any Presidential candidate since Oregon's statehood in 1859. Parker did not win thirty percent in a single county, and overall took just a little over nineteen percent of Oregon's ballots.
Socialist nominee Eugene V. Debs, whose campaign focused on trust-busting and the evils of monopoly,[7] traveled all around the nation in a charismatic campaign that netted him over four hundred thousand votes nationwide. Although he did not outpoll Parker in any Oregon county, Debs nonetheless received over eight percent of the vote.
Results
| 1904 United States presidential election in Oregon[8] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Theodore Roosevelt | 60,455 | 67.06% | 4 | |
| Democratic | Alton B. Parker | 17,521 | 19.43% | 0 | |
| Social Democratic | Eugene Debs | 7,619 | 8.45% | 0 | |
| Prohibition | Silas C. Swallow | 3,806 | 4.22% | 0 | |
| Populist | Thomas E. Watson | 753 | 0.84% | 0 | |
| Totals | 90,154 | 100.00% | 4 | ||
| Voter turnout | — | ||||
Results by county
| County | Theodore Roosevelt Republican |
Alton Brooks Parker Democratic |
Eugene Victor Debs[9] Socialist |
Silas Comfort Swallow[9] Prohibition |
Thomas Edward Watson[9] Populist |
Margin | Total votes cast[10] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Baker | 1,990 | 59.76% | 938 | 28.17% | 335 | 10.06% | 52 | 1.56% | 15 | 0.45% | 1,052 | 31.59% | 3,330 |
| Benton | 1,107 | 62.51% | 442 | 24.96% | 74 | 4.18% | 136 | 7.68% | 12 | 0.68% | 665 | 37.55% | 1,771 |
| Clackamas | 2,783 | 67.78% | 684 | 16.66% | 421 | 10.25% | 141 | 3.43% | 77 | 1.88% | 2,099 | 51.12% | 4,106 |
| Clatsop | 1,408 | 68.68% | 336 | 16.39% | 256 | 12.49% | 41 | 2.00% | 9 | 0.44% | 1,072 | 52.29% | 2,050 |
| Columbia | 1,301 | 74.26% | 221 | 12.61% | 160 | 9.13% | 61 | 3.48% | 9 | 0.51% | 1,080 | 61.64% | 1,752 |
| Coos | 1,712 | 64.26% | 490 | 18.39% | 342 | 12.84% | 92 | 3.45% | 28 | 1.05% | 1,222 | 45.87% | 2,664 |
| Crook | 763 | 65.33% | 266 | 22.77% | 116 | 9.93% | 16 | 1.37% | 7 | 0.60% | 497 | 42.55% | 1,168 |
| Curry | 322 | 70.77% | 87 | 19.12% | 38 | 8.35% | 5 | 1.10% | 3 | 0.66% | 235 | 51.65% | 455 |
| Douglas | 2,443 | 63.21% | 908 | 23.49% | 387 | 10.01% | 95 | 2.46% | 32 | 0.83% | 1,535 | 39.72% | 3,865 |
| Gilliam | 568 | 67.46% | 195 | 23.16% | 48 | 5.70% | 28 | 3.33% | 3 | 0.36% | 373 | 44.30% | 842 |
| Grant | 1,007 | 67.81% | 316 | 21.28% | 123 | 8.28% | 32 | 2.15% | 7 | 0.47% | 691 | 46.53% | 1,485 |
| Harney | 395 | 58.35% | 190 | 28.06% | 80 | 11.82% | 7 | 1.03% | 5 | 0.74% | 205 | 30.28% | 677 |
| Jackson | 1,992 | 61.16% | 798 | 24.50% | 307 | 9.43% | 133 | 4.08% | 27 | 0.83% | 1,194 | 36.66% | 3,257 |
| Josephine | 914 | 60.89% | 327 | 21.79% | 208 | 13.86% | 47 | 3.13% | 5 | 0.33% | 587 | 39.11% | 1,501 |
| Klamath | 552 | 68.74% | 208 | 25.90% | 25 | 3.11% | 10 | 1.25% | 8 | 1.00% | 344 | 42.84% | 803 |
| Lake | 394 | 74.20% | 115 | 21.66% | 4 | 0.75% | 9 | 1.69% | 9 | 1.69% | 279 | 52.54% | 531 |
| Lane | 3,501 | 65.88% | 1,166 | 21.94% | 365 | 6.87% | 232 | 4.37% | 50 | 0.94% | 2,335 | 43.94% | 5,314 |
| Lincoln | 581 | 64.84% | 179 | 19.98% | 118 | 13.17% | 14 | 1.56% | 4 | 0.45% | 402 | 44.87% | 896 |
| Linn | 2,346 | 54.36% | 1,206 | 27.94% | 409 | 9.48% | 286 | 6.63% | 69 | 1.60% | 1,140 | 26.41% | 4,316 |
| Malheur | 799 | 63.82% | 280 | 22.36% | 74 | 5.91% | 77 | 6.15% | 22 | 1.76% | 519 | 41.45% | 1,252 |
| Marion | 4,106 | 70.03% | 1,084 | 18.49% | 297 | 5.07% | 312 | 5.32% | 64 | 1.09% | 3,022 | 51.54% | 5,863 |
| Morrow | 875 | 65.10% | 230 | 17.11% | 156 | 11.61% | 78 | 5.80% | 5 | 0.37% | 645 | 47.99% | 1,344 |
| Multnomah | 13,692 | 73.88% | 2,324 | 12.54% | 1,849 | 9.98% | 592 | 3.19% | 77 | 0.42% | 11,368 | 61.34% | 18,534 |
| Polk | 1,380 | 63.65% | 521 | 24.03% | 122 | 5.63% | 118 | 5.44% | 27 | 1.25% | 859 | 39.62% | 2,168 |
| Sherman | 701 | 71.10% | 163 | 16.53% | 32 | 3.25% | 86 | 8.72% | 4 | 0.41% | 538 | 54.56% | 986 |
| Tillamook | 729 | 69.49% | 136 | 12.96% | 119 | 11.34% | 65 | 6.20% | 0 | 0.00% | 593 | 56.53% | 1,049 |
| Umatilla | 2,642 | 66.27% | 840 | 21.07% | 259 | 6.50% | 223 | 5.59% | 23 | 0.58% | 1,802 | 45.20% | 3,987 |
| Union | 1,884 | 62.88% | 775 | 25.87% | 202 | 6.74% | 116 | 3.87% | 19 | 0.63% | 1,109 | 37.02% | 2,996 |
| Wallowa | 714 | 64.32% | 255 | 22.97% | 99 | 8.92% | 34 | 3.06% | 8 | 0.72% | 459 | 41.35% | 1,110 |
| Wasco | 2,092 | 67.33% | 536 | 17.25% | 228 | 7.34% | 222 | 7.15% | 29 | 0.93% | 1,556 | 50.08% | 3,107 |
| Washington | 2,296 | 73.19% | 492 | 15.68% | 139 | 4.43% | 151 | 4.81% | 59 | 1.88% | 1,804 | 57.51% | 3,137 |
| Wheeler | 462 | 69.58% | 161 | 24.25% | 22 | 3.31% | 12 | 1.81% | 7 | 1.05% | 301 | 45.33% | 664 |
| Yamhill | 2,004 | 63.14% | 652 | 20.54% | 214 | 6.74% | 283 | 8.92% | 21 | 0.66% | 1,352 | 42.60% | 3,174 |
| Totals | 60,455 | 67.06% | 17,521 | 19.43% | 7,628 | 8.46% | 3,806 | 4.22% | 744 | 0.83% | 42,934 | 47.62% | 90,154 |
References
- Burnham, Walter Dean; ‘The System of 1896’, in Kleppner, Paul (editor), The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 176-179 ISBN 0313213798
- Schattschneider, Elmer Eric; The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America, pp. 76-84 ISBN 0030133661
- Murray, Keith; ‘Issues and Personalities of Pacific Northwest Politics, 1889-1950’, The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3 (July 1950), pp. 213-233
- Archer, Clark; Martis, Kenneth C. and Shelley, Fred M.; Historical Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections 1788-2004, p. 99 ISBN 1568029551
- Warren, Kenneth F.; Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior: A-M, p. 609 ISBN 1412954894
- David Leip. "Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Oregon". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
- Egbert, Donald Drew and Bassett, Thomas D.; Socialism and American Life; p. 278 ISBN 1400875080
- Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; Presidential General Election Results – Oregon
- Géoelections; Popular Vote for Eugene V. Debs (1904) (.xlsx file for €15)
- Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote 1896-1932, pp. 305-308 ISBN 9780804716963
