1966 California gubernatorial election - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The California gubernatorial election, 1966 was held on November 8, 1966. The election was a race between incumbent Governor Pat Brown, the Democratic candidate, and actor Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate.
Background
[change | change source]After his re-election victory over former Vice President Richard Nixon in 1962, Brown was strongly considered for Lyndon Johnson's 1964 ticket, a spot that eventually went to Hubert Humphrey. However, Brown's popularity began to sag amidst the civil disorders of the Watts riots and the early anti-Vietnam War demonstrations at U.C. Berkeley.
The Republicans seized upon Brown's sudden unpopularity by nominating a well known and charismatic political outsider – actor Ronald Reagan. With Richard Nixon working tirelessly behind the scenes and Reagan trumpeting his law and order campaign message, Reagan received almost 2/3 of the primary vote over George Christopher, the moderate Republican former mayor of San Francisco.
Results
[change | change source]Reagan won the election in a landslide victory with 3,742,913 (57.55%) of the vote to Brown's 2,479,174 (42.27%).[1][2]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Anderson, Totton J.; Lee, Eugene C. (June 1967). "The 1966 Election in California". The Western Political Quarterly. 20 (2): 535–554. doi:10.2307/446081. JSTOR 446081. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
- ↑ http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?fips=6&year=1966&f=0&off=5&elect=0
Other websites
[change | change source]- Autumn and Cardboard: The 1966 California Gubernatorial Election
- Reagan Heritage Archived 2005-11-24 at the Wayback Machine
- Bepress[permanent dead link] (pg 13)
- SFgate Archived 2011-08-05 at the Wayback Machine