1924 United States presidential election in Oregon

1924 United States presidential election in Oregon
County Results Coolidge 30-40% 40-50% 50-60% 60-70%
President before election; Calvin Coolidge; Republican	Elected President ; Calvin Coolidge; Republican

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.

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]

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 Jefferson and Umatilla counties by double digits.

^ 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
^ Murray, Keith; ‘Issues and Personalities of Pacific Northwest Politics, 1889-1950’, The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3 (July 1950), pp. 213-233
^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 498 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
^ Miller, Kenneth P. (2009). Direct Democracy and the Courts. Cambridge University Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-521-76564-0.
^ Kazin, Michael; Edwards, Rebecca and Rothman, Adam; The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, p. 373 ISBN 978-0-691-15207-3
^ Koppelman, Kent. The Great Diversity Debate: Embracing Pluralism in School and Society. pp. 45–46. ISBN 0-8077-5222-3.
^ See Loewen, James W.; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism ISBN 978-1-4193-6463-1
^ 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.
^ Richardson, Danny G.; Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, p. 180 ISBN 0-595-48126-4
^ Richardson; Others, pp. 182-183
^ Chalmers David Mark; Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, 3rd Ed., pp. 85-89 ISBN 978-0-8223-7781-8
^ ‘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
^ ‘Odds on Coolidge to Carry Oregon: Davis and La Follette Fight for Second Place’; New York Times Special, October 18, 1924, p. 4
^ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 482

[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] Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 498 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6

[4] Miller, Kenneth P. (2009). Direct Democracy and the Courts. Cambridge University Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-521-76564-0.

[5] Kazin, Michael; Edwards, Rebecca and Rothman, Adam; The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History, p. 373 ISBN 978-0-691-15207-3

[6] Koppelman, Kent. The Great Diversity Debate: Embracing Pluralism in School and Society. pp. 45–46. ISBN 0-8077-5222-3.

[7] See Loewen, James W.; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism ISBN 978-1-4193-6463-1

[8] 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.

[9] Richardson, Danny G.; Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, p. 180 ISBN 0-595-48126-4

[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 978-0-8223-7781-8

[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

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]