Oregon State Profile To learn about other states and their elected officials, purchase The Almanac of American Politics 2008.

Oregon was once the most Republican state in the West, voting for Thomas Dewey over Harry Truman in 1948; in the 1980s and early 1990s it was one of the most Democratic. Now it seems more evenly balanced, significantly less Democratic than California, much less Republican than the Rocky Mountain states. Oregon was the closest West Coast state in 2000, when it backed Al Gore by only a 47.0%-46.5% margin. It remained a target state throughout the 2004 race, although ad volume started going down after mid-October when voters started mailing their ballots in. It got plenty of campaign appearances; on August 13 both George W. Bush and John Kerry held rallies in Portland.

Oregon once had an important presidential primary, scheduled in May. In 1948 Oregon ended Harold Stassen’s serious presidential prospects, when he lost 52%-48% to Dewey; in 1968 Oregon gave Robert Kennedy his only defeat when it voted 44%-38% for Eugene McCarthy. Oregon in those days was part of a West Coast campaign swing, just before the California primary; at a time when campaigners were not used to flying all over the country they, like National Football League teams in the 1950s, scheduled West Coast contests together to minimize travel time. For 1992 and 1996, Oregon scheduled its primary for Super Tuesday in March, but it was overshadowed by bigger contests in the South. In 2000 and 2004 the primary was held again in May. That, of course, was well after the parties’ nominees were determined. But in 2004 Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich spent four weeks campaigning in Oregon, hoping to inspire a New Age, Department of Peace, single payer health system constituency. Kerry beat him nonetheless by a 79%-16% margin.