Sprague established himself as one of the leading editorialists and public commentators of the Pacific Northwest, and his editorials were often reprinted in some of America's largest newspapers.

A declared Republican, he nonetheless took an independent position on the issues of the time, reflecting a progressive view which was often at odds with leaders of his party.

In the meantime, however, Martin was a New Deal critic and was opposed in his own primary by the Roosevelt administration's choice, State Senator Henry Hess.

Taking advantage of the split among the Democrats, Sprague made the administrations' intervention a major campaign theme, urging voters to "repudiate outside interference in local affairs."

Contrary to his entry as a sacrificial lamb,[2] Sprague won decisively, carrying 32 of the 36 counties in the general election, winning 214,062 votes to Hess' 158,744.

[4] With backing from both labor and industry, he moved quickly to improve the state's employment services and launched vocational-training programs to aid the jobless in efforts to lift Oregon out of the Great Depression.

Sprague helped maintain peace in labor disputes by his forthright opposition to an anti-picketing law that was later held to be unconstitutional by the Oregon Supreme Court.

He lost the political backing of organized labor, though, as a result of his policy of awarding state contracts to the lowest bidder, whether or not they were union firms.

During Sprague's administration, Oregon became the first state to initiate control over logging operations to insure enforcement of progressive forest practices.

Enemy aliens should remain at home pending further federal instructions.As pressure built towards the start of World War II, Sprague attempted to moderate opinions and attitudes towards Japanese people.

Sprague continued to defend the Japanese until fellow Republican (and current Secretary of State) Earl Snell entered the primary.