Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives for a rally at the Resch Expo Center on Oct. 17, 2024 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The event was one of three Harris had scheduled in the swing state that day. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Democrat Kamala Harris is poised to continue Oregon’s 40-year streak of voting for Democrats for president.
Preliminary election results released by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office show that Harris and her vice presidential pick Tim Walz have nearly 59% of the vote compared with 38% for Trump and his vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance.
Analysts have widely expected Harris to dominate blue Oregon, with an Economist interactive poll consistently giving her at least a 10-point margin over Trump. The state has a Democratic governor and Democratic-led Legislature and then-candidate Joe Biden took the state in 2020 by 56.9% compared to 40.7% for Trump. The last time Oregon endorsed a Republican for president was four decades ago – in 1984 – when then-President Ronald Reagan ran for a second term. He captured 55.9% of the vote in Oregon compared with 43.7% for Democrat Walter Mondale.
Though geographically, much of Oregon is Republican, including southern and eastern Oregon, the most populous counties, from Lane to Multnomah, are largely Democratic.
With the outcome here seen as a certainty, both Harris and Trump basically ignored both the West Coast in their fiercely fought campaigns, focusing instead on swing states like Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina, where they held multiple rallies, sometimes on the same day. Oregon is a small prize for a presidential candidate, with only eight electoral votes while Washington has 12. California – the biggest prize of all nationwide – has 54 electoral votes.
But while Oregon has a relatively small voice in national politics, it’s home to extremists who tend to take to the streets in Portland over divisive political issues, like reproductive rights and immigration. Trump has praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, which flipped reproductive rights decisions to the states, but he wavered during the campaign on when abortions should be banned and when asked about whether he’d push for a federal ban, he has dodged the question by saying it wouldn’t come up.
Harris has been clear on her support for reproductive rights, warning that a Trump presidency would be bad for women.
Republicans, on the other hand, have attacked Harris on immigration. She’s repeated that if elected, she would sign a bipartisan border security bill, like the one quashed by congressional Republicans after objections from Trump. But beyond that, she’s said little, while Trump has made it key to his platform. He’s called for mass deportations and said if he’s in the White House, he would end birthright citizenship which makes anyone born in the U.S., regardless of the nationality of their parents, an American.
But the issue that’s the top concern for voters is the economy, surveys have found. In a September Pew Research Center poll, about 80% of voters said the economy was their number one concern while 65% cited health care. Only about 60% named inflation, while about 50% cited abortion.
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