1924 United States presidential election in Oregon

The 1924 United States presidential election in Oregon took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. State voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Main article: 1924 United States presidential election
1924 United States presidential election in Oregon
November 4, 1924
 
Nominee Calvin Coolidge Robert M. La Follette John W. Davis
Party Republican Independent Democratic
Home state Massachusetts Wisconsin West Virginia
Running mate Charles G. Dawes Burton K. Wheeler Charles W. Bryan
Electoral vote 5 0 0
Popular vote 142,579 68,403 67,589
Percentage 51.01% 24.47% 24.18%
President before election

Calvin Coolidge
Republican

 Elected President

Calvin Coolidge
Republican

Elections in Oregon

Background

Outside a few Presidential and gubernatorial elections, 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.

Still, in the previous 1920 election Oregon saw less decline from Wilson’s 1916 support than any other state in the West or Plains,[3] so that after being Wilson’s poorest state in this region it was James Cox’s strongest therein. Despite continuing overwhelming Republican dominance of the state legislature, 1922 had seen incumbent Governor Ben W. Olcott denounce the powerful Ku Klux Klan[4] with the result that Democratic nominee Walter Pierce won the election on a platform to make attendance at public schools compulsory, without support from the more progressive faction of the dominant Republican Party.[5] The 1922 House of Representatives elections also saw Oregon elect to the 3rd District its first Democratic representative since 1880 in Elton Watkins. Pierce did pass this law with overwhelming support from conservative Republicans in the legislature,[6] only to find it overruled by both the Oregon Supreme Court and later federally in Pierce v. Society of Sisters.

However, the division of the Democratic Party over the Ku Klux Klan – which at the time all but ruled Oregon with its reputation for fanatical racism[7] and anti-Catholicism[8] – alongside maverick veteran Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette’s decision to mount a third-party presidential campaign[9] ensured by late summer that the Republicans would be unchallenged in carrying Oregon, especially after La Follette denounced the Klan,[10] which was highly popular amongst working Oregonians.[11]

Vote

Polls consistently showed that Oregon would remain firmly in Republican hands,[12] and by mid-October it was clear that La Follette and Davis would run close for second place.[13] Ultimately La Follette edged Davis out for second place by a mere 814 votes out of 279,488, although Oregon was still Davis’ best state west of the Continental Divide apart from the two less isolationist states of Southern-leaning Arizona and Mormon Utah, with the Democrat’s best vote coming from historically Democratic and Ozark mountaineer-settled Eastern Oregon.[14] Coolidge nonetheless carried every county, and won all but two by double digits.

Results
Presidential Candidate Running Mate Party Electoral Vote (EV) Popular Vote (PV)
Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts Charles Dawes Republican 5[15] 142,579 51.01%
Robert M. La Follette Burton K. Wheeler Independent[lower-alpha 1] 0 68,403 24.47%
John W. Davis Charles W. Bryan Democratic 0 67,589 24.18%
Frank T. Johns Verne L. Reynolds Socialist Labor 0 917 0.33%

Results by county
County John Calvin Coolidge
Republican		 John William Davis
Democratic		 Robert Marion La Follette, Sr.
Independent[lower-alpha 1]		 Frank Tetes Johns
Socialist Labor		 Margin[lower-alpha 2] Total votes cast[16]
# % # % # % # % # %
Baker 2,803 45.41% 2,004 32.47% 1,356 21.97% 9 0.15% 799[lower-alpha 3] 12.95% 6,172
Benton 3,417 60.68% 1,579 28.04% 623 11.06% 12 0.21% 1,838[lower-alpha 3] 32.64% 5,631
Clackamas 5,864 43.28% 3,099 22.87% 4,508 33.27% 77 0.57% 1,356 10.01% 13,548
Clatsop 3,313 56.33% 1,373 23.35% 1,158 19.69% 37 0.63% 1,940[lower-alpha 3] 32.99% 5,881
Columbia 2,483 56.20% 1,015 22.97% 896 20.28% 24 0.54% 1,468[lower-alpha 3] 33.23% 4,418
Coos 3,905 48.39% 1,757 21.77% 2,359 29.23% 49 0.61% 1,546 19.16% 8,070
Crook 725 50.73% 434 30.37% 266 18.61% 4 0.28% 291[lower-alpha 3] 20.36% 1,429
Curry 664 54.70% 224 18.45% 317 26.11% 9 0.74% 347 28.58% 1,214
Deschutes 2,321 53.02% 1,015 23.18% 1,013 23.14% 29 0.66% 1,306[lower-alpha 3] 29.83% 4,378
Douglas 4,219 53.75% 1,666 21.23% 1,943 24.75% 21 0.27% 2,276 29.00% 7,849
Gilliam 738 50.20% 521 35.44% 207 14.08% 4 0.27% 217[lower-alpha 3] 14.76% 1,470
Grant 1,126 56.90% 459 23.19% 380 19.20% 14 0.71% 667[lower-alpha 3] 33.70% 1,979
Harney 851 53.83% 436 27.58% 285 18.03% 9 0.57% 415[lower-alpha 3] 26.25% 1,581
Hood River 1,214 48.44% 683 27.25% 600 23.94% 9 0.36% 531[lower-alpha 3] 21.19% 2,506
Jackson 4,868 53.25% 1,840 20.13% 2,408 26.34% 25 0.27% 2,460 26.91% 9,141
Jefferson 374 39.00% 242 25.23% 334 34.83% 9 0.94% 40 4.17% 959
Josephine 1,756 53.91% 650 19.96% 835 25.64% 16 0.49% 921 28.28% 3,257
Klamath 2,775 53.48% 680 13.10% 1,715 33.05% 19 0.37% 1,060 20.43% 5,189
Lake 917 60.33% 304 20.00% 295 19.41% 4 0.26% 613[lower-alpha 3] 40.33% 1,520
Lane 8,551 59.90% 3,255 22.80% 2,416 16.92% 53 0.37% 5,296[lower-alpha 3] 37.10% 14,275
Lincoln 1,328 52.20% 641 25.20% 552 21.70% 23 0.90% 687[lower-alpha 3] 27.00% 2,544
Linn 4,141 49.56% 2,618 31.33% 1,575 18.85% 21 0.25% 1,523[lower-alpha 3] 18.23% 8,355
Malheur 1,671 51.94% 828 25.74% 710 22.07% 8 0.25% 843[lower-alpha 3] 26.20% 3,217
Marion 8,351 52.14% 3,996 24.95% 3,631 22.67% 38 0.24% 4,355[lower-alpha 3] 27.19% 16,016
Morrow 991 53.34% 397 21.37% 462 24.87% 8 0.43% 529 28.47% 1,858
Multnomah 48,866 49.98% 21,733 22.23% 26,932 27.55% 233 0.24% 21,934 22.44% 97,764
Polk 2,755 52.75% 1,621 31.04% 831 15.91% 16 0.31% 1,134[lower-alpha 3] 21.71% 5,223
Sherman 756 55.92% 367 27.14% 229 16.94% 0 0.00% 389[lower-alpha 3] 28.77% 1,352
Tillamook 2,201 59.18% 795 21.38% 700 18.82% 23 0.62% 1,406[lower-alpha 3] 37.81% 3,719
Umatilla 3,854 44.71% 3,052 35.41% 1,693 19.64% 21 0.24% 802[lower-alpha 3] 9.30% 8,620
Union 2,428 42.87% 1,816 32.07% 1,398 24.69% 21 0.37% 612[lower-alpha 3] 10.81% 5,663
Wallowa 1,253 46.29% 973 35.94% 471 17.40% 10 0.37% 280[lower-alpha 3] 10.34% 2,707
Wasco 2,409 51.46% 1,185 25.32% 1,069 22.84% 18 0.38% 1,224[lower-alpha 3] 26.15% 4,681
Washington 4,203 45.98% 2,103 23.01% 2,809 30.73% 26 0.28% 1,394 15.25% 9,141
Wheeler 685 68.43% 213 21.28% 103 10.29% 0 0.00% 472[lower-alpha 3] 47.15% 1,001
Yamhill 3,803 53.11% 2,015 28.14% 1,324 18.49% 18 0.25% 1,788[lower-alpha 3] 24.97% 7,160
Totals142,57951.01%67,58924.18%68,40324.47%9170.33%74,17626.54%279,488

Notes
  1. Although La Follette was nationally the nominee of the Progressive Party, he ran as an independent candidate without a party label in Oregon.
  2. Because La Follette finished second ahead of Davis in Oregon as a whole, all margins given are Coolidge vote minus La Follette vote and percentage margin Coolidge percentage minus La Follette percentage unless stated otherwise for the county in question.
  3. In this county where Davis did run ahead of La Follette, margin given is Coolidge vote minus Davis vote and percentage margin Coolidge percentage minus Davis percentage.
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References
  1. Burnham, Walter Dean; ‘The System of 1896’, in Kleppner, Paul (editor), The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 176-179 ISBN 0313213798
  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. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 498 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  4. Miller, Kenneth P.; Direct Democracy and the Courts, p. 127 ISBN 9786612393853
  5. Kazin, Michael; Edwards, Rebecca and Rothman, Adam; The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, p. 373 ISBN 9780691152073
  6. Koppelman, Kent. The Great Diversity Debate: Embracing Pluralism in School and Society. pp. 45–46. ISBN 0807752223.
  7. See Loewen, James W.; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism ISBN 9781419364631
  8. Allerfeldt, Kristofer; Race, Radicalism, Religion, and Restriction: Immigration in the Pacific Northwest, 1890-1924, pp. 59-62 ISBN 9786612340130
  9. Richardson, Danny G.; Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, p. 180 ISBN 0595481264
  10. Richardson; Others, pp. 182-183
  11. Chalmers David Mark; Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, 3rd Ed., pp. 85-89 ISBN 9780822377818
  12. ‘Davis Percentage Increases in Poll – But Coolidge Still Leads With 808,340 Out of Total of 1,451,591 Votes. La Follette Is Second’; New York Times, October 10, 1924, p. 3
  13. ‘Odds on Coolidge to Carry Oregon: Davis and La Follette Fight for Second Place’; New York Times Special, October 18, 1924, p. 4
  14. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 482
  15. "1924 Presidential General Election Results – Oregon". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  16. 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 Fourth day of November, A.D. 1924, for Presidential Electors
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