1928 United States presidential election in Washington (state) explained

See main article: 1928 United States presidential election.

Election Name:	1928 United States presidential election in Washington (state)
Country:	Washington
Flag Image:	Flag of Washington (1923–1967).svg
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1924 United States presidential election in Washington (state)
Previous Year:	1924
Next Election:	1932 United States presidential election in Washington (state)
Next Year:	1932
Election Date:	November 6, 1928
Image1:	Herbert Hoover - NARA - 532049.jpg
Nominee1:	Herbert Hoover
Party1:	Republican Party (United States)
Home State1:	California
Running Mate1:	Charles Curtis
Electoral Vote1:	7
Popular Vote1:	335,844
Percentage1:	67.06%
Nominee2:	Al Smith
Party2:	Democratic Party (United States)
Home State2:	New York
Running Mate2:	Joseph T. Robinson
Electoral Vote2:	0
Popular Vote2:	156,772
Percentage2:	31.30%
Map Size:	380px
President
Before Election:	Calvin Coolidge
Before Party:	Republican Party (United States)
After Election:	Herbert Hoover
After Party:	Republican Party (United States)

The 1928 United States presidential election in Washington took place on November 6, 1928 as part of the 1928 United States presidential election. Washington's voters selected seven voters to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

With the economy growing very rapidly, and the scandals of the earlier decade such as the Teapot Dome scandal essentially removed from the public's mind at the time, the Republican Party was at the peak of its power. Incumbent President Calvin Coolidge could not be persuaded to run for a second full term, but to compensate for this the Democratic Party – with many prominent members like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and William Gibbs McAdoo refusing to run because they believed the party had no hope of winning^[1] – nominated Al Smith, a devout Catholic, anti-Prohibition, and associated with the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine of his native New York.

The powerful anti-Catholicism of the Pacific Northwest,^[2] which was largely settled by Scandinavians and Anglo-American Yankees, meant that the large progressive third-party vote for Parley Christensen and Robert La Follette from the previous two elections was mainly turned over to Hoover,^[3] although La Follette when he died in 1925 had endorsed Smith.^[3] Minus significant third-party candidates Smith did triple the Democratic vote from the exceptionally low level of 1924, but Hoover increased the Republican proportion by fifteen percent – half the La Follette vote – as Smith could not carry the strongly unionized and socially progressive counties west of the Cascades.^[2]

Consequently, Hoover was able to carry Washington by 36 percentage points in the first two-party contest in three elections. With 67.06% of the popular vote, Washington would prove to be Hoover's fourth strongest state after Kansas, Michigan and Maine.^[4] Only in 1904 has Washington State been so Republican relative to the nation as a whole,^[5] and then there was a sizable Socialist vote (though less powerful than the third-party votes of 1920 and 1924) for Eugene Debs.^[6] Smith did nonetheless carry Ferry County, the first time since 1916 the Democratic Party had won any county in Washington – and indeed along with five counties in California the first Democratic wins since that election in any county within the three Pacific States of Washington, Oregon and California.

Until Donald Trump in 2016, Hoover was the last Republican to capture heavily unionized Grays Harbor County,^[7] which he did by a large 34 percent margin. He was also the last Republican to win a majority in this county until Trump in 2020. Hoover also won adjacent Pacific County by 36 percent, whereas only Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 managed to subsequently win Pacific County for the GOP until Trump in 2016.^[7] Kitsap, Snohomish and Wahkiakum Counties would not vote Republican again until 1972.^[8], this is the last occasion when Washington voted more Republican than Colorado, Idaho, Indiana or Wyoming.

Results

Party! Pledged to! Elector! Votes
	Republican Party	Herbert Hoover	J. C. Scott	335,844
	Republican Party	Herbert Hoover	Victor Zednick	335,503
	Republican Party	Herbert Hoover	H. T. Wanamaker	335,183
	Republican Party	Herbert Hoover	Dayton B. Garrison	335,116
	Republican Party	Herbert Hoover	O. H. Woody	334,884
	Republican Party	Herbert Hoover	Richard M. Butte	334,738
	Republican Party	Herbert Hoover	Edward C. Finch	334,380
	Democratic Party	Alfred E. Smith	D. F. Stanley	156,772
	Democratic Party	Alfred E. Smith	J. A. Scotland	156,428
	Democratic Party	Alfred E. Smith	Ione K. Humes	156,421
	Democratic Party	Alfred E. Smith	Edith Dolan Riley	156,367
	Democratic Party	Alfred E. Smith	Judson Shorett	156,360
	Democratic Party	Alfred E. Smith	Charles M. O'Brien	156,180
	Democratic Party	Alfred E. Smith	E. M. Starrett	155,514
	Socialist Labor Party	Verne L. Reynolds	Abraham L. Brearcliff	4,068
	Socialist Labor Party	Verne L. Reynolds	Daniel L. Barnett	3,965
	Socialist Labor Party	Verne L. Reynolds	Frederkke Bolette Eiene	3,961
	Socialist Labor Party	Verne L. Reynolds	Henry Genies	3,944
	Socialist Labor Party	Verne L. Reynolds	Kolo Kristoff	3,912
	Socialist Labor Party	Verne L. Reynolds	John C. Schafer	3,904
	Socialist Labor Party	Verne L. Reynolds	Samuel A. Witherspoon	3,844
	Socialist Party	Norman M. Thomas	George Hanson	2,615
	Socialist Party	Norman M. Thomas	James Lund	2,543
	Socialist Party	Norman M. Thomas	T. J. McKinley	2,524
	Socialist Party	Norman M. Thomas	F. X. Hall	2,522
	Socialist Party	Norman M. Thomas	C. E. Forslund	2,520
	Socialist Party	Norman M. Thomas	William Koch	2,498
	Socialist Party	Norman M. Thomas	James P. Grim	2,494
	Workers Party	William Z. Foster	Charles Smith	1,541
	Workers Party	William Z. Foster	John Davis	1,091
	Workers Party	William Z. Foster	W. E. Elbe	1,083
	Workers Party	William Z. Foster	D. G. O'Hanrahan	1,072
	Workers Party	William Z. Foster	W. Spohr	1,051
	Workers Party	William Z. Foster	August Salo	1,046
	Workers Party	William Z. Foster	Bessie Margolis	1,041
Votes cast				500,840

Results by county

County	Herbert Hoover Republican		Al Smith Democratic		Verne L. Reynolds Socialist Labor		Norman M. Thomas Socialist		William Z. Foster Workers		Margin		Total votes cast
County		%		%		%		%		%		%	Total votes cast
	Adams		1,473		64.07%		807		35.10%		5		0.22%	9	0.39%	5	0.22%	666	28.97%	2,299
	Asotin		1,812		69.37%		776		29.71%		10		0.38%	11	0.42%	3	0.11%	1,036	39.66%	2,612
	Benton		2,650		69.94%		1,080		28.50%		20		0.53%	34	0.90%	5	0.13%	1,570	41.44%	3,789
	Chelan		7,672		77.07%		2,239		22.49%		14		0.14%	24	0.24%	5	0.05%	5,433	54.58%	9,954
	Clallam		3,319		65.53%		1,705		33.66%		13		0.26%	18	0.36%	10	0.20%	1,614	31.87%	5,065
	Clark		7,786		62.58%		4,467		35.90%		59		0.47%	85	0.68%	45	0.36%	3,319	26.68%	12,442
	Columbia		1,328		65.07%		689		33.76%		6		0.29%	14	0.69%	4	0.20%	639	31.31%	2,041
	Cowlitz		5,882		68.76%		2,581		30.17%		18		0.21%	42	0.49%	31	0.36%	3,301	38.59%	8,554
	Douglas		1,760		66.34%		862		32.49%		14		0.53%	15	0.57%	2	0.08%	898	33.85%	2,653
	Ferry		640		45.75%		732		52.32%		9		0.64%	16	1.14%	2	0.14%	-92	-6.58%	1,399
	Franklin		1,339		61.96%		799		36.97%		9		0.42%	12	0.56%	2	0.09%	540	24.99%	2,161
	Garfield		1,004		70.60%		412		28.97%		5		0.35%	0	0.00%	1	0.07%	592	41.63%	1,422
	Grant		1,407		68.07%		641		31.01%		2		0.10%	13	0.63%	4	0.19%	766	37.06%	2,067
	Grays Harbor		10,798		66.30%		5,258		32.29%		51		0.31%	79	0.49%	100	0.61%	5,540	34.02%	16,286
	Island		1,487		71.25%		556		26.64%		10		0.48%	27	1.29%	7	0.34%	931	44.61%	2,087
	Jefferson		1,472		63.83%		810		35.13%		4		0.17%	14	0.61%	6	0.26%	662	28.71%	2,306
	King		96,263		65.63%		46,604		31.77%		2,336		1.59%	811	0.55%	664	0.45%	49,659	33.86%	146,678
	Kitsap		6,544		62.97%		3,668		35.30%		60		0.58%	77	0.74%	43	0.41%	2,876	27.68%	10,392
	Kittitas		3,207		59.48%		2,136		39.61%		7		0.13%	25	0.46%	17	0.32%	1,071	19.87%	5,392
	Klickitat		1,936		65.43%		975		32.95%		15		0.51%	25	0.84%	8	0.27%	961	32.48%	2,959
	Lewis		9,253		71.12%		3,591		27.60%		50		0.38%	79	0.61%	37	0.28%	5,662	43.52%	13,010
	Lincoln		2,718		59.62%		1,807		39.64%		14		0.31%	15	0.33%	5	0.11%	911	19.98%	4,559
	Mason		1,745		62.95%		992		35.79%		10		0.36%	21	0.76%	4	0.14%	753	27.16%	2,772
	Okanogan		3,245		64.86%		1,722		34.42%		12		0.24%	17	0.34%	7	0.14%	1,523	30.44%	5,003
	Pacific		3,247		67.41%		1,523		31.62%		7		0.15%	12	0.25%	28	0.58%	1,724	35.79%	4,817
	Pend Oreille		1,206		59.58%		793		39.18%		11		0.54%	14	0.69%	0	0.00%	413	20.40%	2,024
	Pierce		35,748		66.02%		17,402		32.14%		479		0.88%	313	0.58%	204	0.38%	18,346	33.88%	54,146
	San Juan		814		66.72%		400		32.79%		2		0.16%	3	0.25%	1	0.08%	414	33.93%	1,220
	Skagit		8,336		73.58%		2,848		25.14%		36		0.32%	59	0.52%	50	0.44%	5,488	48.44%	11,329
	Skamania		631		55.99%		473		41.97%		5		0.44%	15	1.33%	3	0.27%	158	14.02%	1,127
	Snohomish		16,516		67.39%		7,419		30.27%		325		1.33%	169	0.69%	78	0.32%	9,097	37.12%	24,507
	Spokane		35,858		65.48%		18,527		33.83%		157		0.29%	169	0.31%	47	0.09%	17,331	31.65%	54,758
	Stevens		3,813		63.05%		2,147		35.50%		23		0.38%	43	0.71%	22	0.36%	1,666	27.55%	6,048
	Thurston		7,203		69.59%		3,013		29.11%		29		0.28%	79	0.76%	27	0.26%	4,190	40.48%	10,351
	Wahkiakum		578		59.28%		382		39.18%		6		0.62%	8	0.82%	1	0.10%	196	20.10%	975
	Walla Walla		6,774		70.08%		2,859		29.58%		14		0.14%	17	0.18%	2	0.02%	3,915	40.50%	9,666
	Whatcom		14,621		76.87%		4,100		21.56%		149		0.78%	120	0.63%	31	0.16%	10,521	55.31%	19,021
	Whitman		7,065		69.94%		2,969		29.39%		27		0.27%	35	0.35%	5	0.05%	4,096	40.55%	10,101
	Yakima		16,694		73.07%		6,008		26.30%		45		0.20%	76	0.33%	25	0.11%	10,686	46.77%	22,848
Totals	335,844	67.06%	156,772	31.30%	4,068	0.81%	2,615	0.52%	1,541	0.31%	179,072	35.75%	500,840

Counties that flipped from Progressive to Republican

Counties that flipped from Progressive to Democratic

Ferry

Notes and References

Paulson, Arthur C.; Electoral Realignment and the Outlook for American Democracy; p. 61
Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 502
Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 58-60
Web site: 1928 Presidential Election Statistics. Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. 2018-03-05.
Counting the Votes; Washington State
Web site: Géoelections. Percent of Vote for Eugene V. Debs (1904). (.xlsx file for €15)
Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 332-333