1978 Oregon gubernatorial election
election
The 1978 Oregon gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 1978. In a rematch of the 1974 contest, Republican nominee Victor Atiyeh defeated Democratic incumbent Robert Straub. As of 2026, this is the last Oregon gubernatorial race where the incumbent was defeated.
Democratic primary
Candidates
Nominee
Robert W. Straub, incumbent Governor of Oregon
Eliminated in primary
Marvin J. Hollingsworth, former state representative (1971-1972)
Emily Ashworth, teacher
William L. Patrick, car salesman
James R. Smith
E. "Buck" Lambert, car dealer
E. Allen Propst, retired cropduster and candidate for governor in 1970
Results
Republican primary
Candidates
Nominee
Victor G. Atiyeh, state senator and nominee in 1974
Eliminated in primary
Tom McCall, former Governor of Oregon (1967-1975)
Roger E. Martin, state representative
William A. Jolley, refrigeration service engineer
L.E. "Bud" Kretsinger, tavern owner
Gerald Wayne "Jerry" Todd
William Desmond Hewitt, pianist and marijuana legalization advocate
Results
General election
Results
Results by county
Lane County backed the losing candidate for the first time since 1930 and after this election, has voted for the winner in every subsequent gubernatorial election to date (as of 2026). This was also one of only two elections in the 20th century in which the winning gubernatorial candidate did not carry Multnomah County.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as election. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7101449. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1974, 2026 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “1978 Oregon gubernatorial election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.