Sylvia Thompson

Sylvia McGuire Thompson (April 13, 1876 – February 22, 1950) was an American socialist politician and suffragist. She was a two-term Democratic state representative for Oregon and the president of the Portland Federation of Women's Clubs.

Biography Thompson was born on April 13, 1876, in Louisville, Kentucky. Thomson grew up in a period when the movement for women's right to vote and hold public office was gaining traction. She actively participated in the movement and was the head of the Wasco County suffrage campaign in 1912. She supported the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson during the presidential election of 1912 and she became the first woman to be a member of the Democratic National Campaign Committee in United States history. She is credited for passing the eight-month minimum school bill, the teachers' minimum salary, the elementary education tax, and the state's child welfare law.

Thompson died on February 22, 1950, aged 73, at Troutdale Tuberculosis Hospital.