Initial results in Oregon’s 2016 primary election are in, and they show that Bernie Sanders has won the Beaver State as expected, although not by a huge margin.
Of Oregon’s 2,293,928 voters, 954,125 cast ballots, for a total turnout of 41%.
In Oregon, voters register by party, so we can also compare turnout among voters identifying with a party. Slightly more than half of the state’s Democratic voters turned out, which is a reasonably impressive figure for a primary. On the Republican side, turnout was 47.5%. 478,713 Democratic voters cast ballots, compared to 326,226 Republican voters.
Results on the Democratic side for President were as follows:
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
| Hillary Clinton | 200,449 | 45.56% |
| Bernie Sanders | 231,696 | 52.67% |
| Write-in Votes | 7,786 | 1.77% |
| Totals: | 439,931 | 100% |
On the Republican side, Donald Trump easily cruised to victory, winning 65.19% of the vote. John Kasich, who suspended his campaign during the mail-in voting period, came in second place with 16.25%. Ted Cruz was third with 15.79%. No other candidates appeared on the ballot for the Republicans.
In other races:
- Oregon’s senior U.S. Senator Ron Wyden easily won his party’s nomination, capturing 83.76% of the vote. He’ll face Independent Steven Reynolds and Republican Mark Callahan in November.
- Each of Oregon’s incumbent U.S. Representatives won their party nominations as well. Of the incumbents, Kurt Schrader had the smallest margin of victory, possibly owing to some of the not-progressive votes he’s taken lately in Congress. Here the matchups for the fall:
- OR-01: Suzanne Bonamici (D) v. Brian J Heinrich (R)
- OR-02: Greg Walden (R) v. James Carey (D)
- OR-03: Earl Blumenauer (D) v. David Walker (I)
- OR-04: Peter A DeFazio (D) v. Art Robinson (R)
- OR-05: Kurt Schrader (D) v. Colm Willis (R)
- For Governor, Oregon’s Democratic voters backed Kate Brown, who garnered a commanding 84% of the vote. Republican voters picked Bud Pierce, who dominated a weak field with 46.62% of the vote.
- In the Secretary of State’s race, Democratic voters nominated Brad Avakian, who triumphed over Richard Devlin and Val Hoyle. Avakian won with 39.12% of the vote compared to Hoyle’s 33.87% and Devlin’s 26.25%. Republicans overwhelmingly nominated Dennis Richardson.
- There was no drama in the Treasurer’s race, as only one candidate appeared on each ballot. Democrat Tobias Reed will face Republican Jeff Gudman. The Attorney General’s race was also a yawnfest. Democratic incumbent Ellen Rosenblum ran unopposed in the primary. She’ll face Republican Daniel Zene Crowe, who also ran unopposed.
- Generally speaking, there wasn’t much excitement in the legislative races. However, the 40th District had an interesting contest on the Democratic side for State Representative. Mark Meek captured the nomination with 42.30% of the vote, trailed by Terry Gibson at 29.37% and Steven Cade at 27.84%. There was an even closer race in the 43rd for State Representative. Roberta Phillip-Robbins narrowly beat out Tawna Sanchez for the Democratic nomination. She had 49.51% to Sanchez’s 47.69%.
Complete state-level results can be viewed here.
In Portland, Oregon’s largest city, there were some lopsided results:
- Ted Wheeler has won the crowded primary for Mayor of Portland. With 66,271 votes, he’s well ahead of everybody else.
- For Commissioner Position 1, voters backed Amanda Fritz. For Position 4, they backed Steve Novick.
Results for Multnomah County can be viewed here.
Oregon is the third and final state in the inner Pacific Northwest to hold a nominating event on the Democratic side.
Washington Democrats held caucuses on March 26th, while Idaho Democrats caucused several days prior on March 22nd. Alaska and Hawaii Democrats also joined Washington Democrats in holding caucuses on March 26th.
Montana will be the last state in the Pacific Northwest to weigh in. Its primary will take place at the end of the season, on June 7th, along with California, New Jersey, South Dakota, and New Mexico. North Dakota Democrats will also caucus that day.
The District of Columbia will hold its primary on June 14th, 2016, at the very end of the nominating calendar. At that point, all U.S. jurisdictions will have held nominating events, and the season will have drawn to a close.
