The 1942 Oregon gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 1942 to elect the governor of the U.S. state of Oregon. Republican candidate and

Oregon Secretary of State The secretary of state of Oregon, an elected constitutional officer within the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is first in line of succession to the governor. The duties of the office are auditor of public accounts, ch ...

Earl W. Snell defeated

state senator A state senator is a member of a state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. Description A state senator is a member of an upper house in the bicameral legislatures of 49 U ...

Lew Wallace by a more than 3–1 margin, which remains the largest margin of victory for any candidate for Oregon governor.

Background and campaign

In 1938, Republican Charles A. Sprague had won an easy victory as governor following a divisive Democratic primary which had seen the defeat of the sitting governor, Charles Martin. That same year, Republican Earl Snell had been re-elected to a second term as Secretary of State. In 1942, Snell was ineligible for another term, and decided to challenge Sprague's re-election effort. Despite the fact that the Oregon legislature was controlled by his own party, Sprague's

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

stance on numerous issues had caused conflict with the legislature, and he had vetoed special interest legislation put forward by members of his own party. An attempted recall of Sprague had been unsuccessful, but Snell used the issue, along with accusations that Sprague's efforts to efficiently organize the state for World War II had been inadequate, to achieve a comfortable victory in the primary. In the Democratic primary, state senator Lew Wallace defeated former Oregon House speaker

Howard LaTourette Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...

to win his party's nomination. In the general election, Snell crushed Wallace by the largest margin of victory ever in an Oregon governor's race, winning at least 70 percent of the vote in every county.

Election results

References

Gubernatorial

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...

Oregon November 1942 events in the United States United States gubernatorial elections in the 1940s 1942 in Oregon Government of Oregon 1940s in Oregon 1942 elections in the United States 1940s Oregon elections {{oregon-gov-stub