Sen. John F. Kennedy's Oregon campaign

• Kennedy made five visits here in 1959, buying a quilt in Powell Butte in central Oregon, talking to a small, hostile crowd of longshoremen in Coos Bay and visiting Baker City's local radio station.
• In 1960 he did a whirlwind six-town, two-day winter tour, attended a "snack and social hour" in the cafeteria of Portland's Cleveland High School in April, and came back for stops in Newport, Salem, Tillamook, Scappoose and St. Helens ahead of Oregon's May 20 primary vote.

The intrigue: JFK's electoral chances in Oregon faced particular challenges, including an "anti-Catholic surge of the Ku Klux Klan era" that had led to a voter-approved ban on parochial and private schools, per a 1964 report republished in 2020.

• Oregon's own U.S. Senator, Wayne Morse, was also on the primary ballot.

Yes but: In the end, JFK soundly beat Morse in the 1960 primary — and after more campaign stops here — went on to win all of Oregon's six electoral college votes against Richard Nixon.

The bottom line: As president, JFK returned to Oregon just once in his nearly two years as president — stopping in Astoria on an 11-state "conservation tour" in September 1963, two months before his death.

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