May 17, 2016 (2016-05-17) 2020 → 360,829 269,846 Start date May 17, 2016 | 36 25 56.24% 42.06% | |
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The 2016 Oregon Democratic primary was held on May 17 in the U.S. state of Oregon as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
On the same day, the Democratic Party held their Kentucky primary, while the Republican Party held their own Oregon primary on that day.
Analysis
As Barack Obama had done against Hillary Clinton in the state eight years earlier, Sanders won a convincing double-digit victory in Oregon, as he tried to breathe new life into his campaign. Massive grassroots support across the state helped the progressive and populist candidate achieve a double-digit win in a state with a closed primary. Closed primaries tended to favor Clinton as Sanders had stronger support across the political spectrum, which is one reason many expected Sanders would have beaten Trump in a General Election. Sanders swept all counties in the state but one. He won a large victory in populous Portland in Multnomah County, where the bulk of the vote came from. He also was buoyed by support from the capital city of Salem in Marion County. Sanders swept all of the other major cities as well, including Eugene, Bend, and Medford, and likewise performed strongly in most of the rural and remote counties of the state, including those of Central Oregon and in the Oregon high desert bordering Idaho from the west. Sanders performed well in areas that were diverse in ethnicity as well as those which were less diverse. In fact, some of his largest margins of victory came from areas with a greater ethnic diversity in the state, such as Portland or Hillsboro, Oregon.
Clinton only won one county, Gilliam County, by one vote.