Hiram Warren Johnson was an American attorney and politician who served as the 23rd governor of California from 1911 to 1917 and represented California in the U.S. Senate for five terms from 1917 to 1945. Johnson achieved national prominence in the early 20th century as a leading progressive and ran for vice president on Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive ticket in the 1912 presidential election. As a U.S. senator, Johnson was a leading critic of the foreign policy of both Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Clement Calhoun Young was an American educator and politician who was affiliated with the original Progressive Party and later the Republican Party. He was elected to five consecutive terms in the California State Assembly, serving from 1909 to 1919, then as the 28th lieutenant governor of California, holding that office from 1919 to 1927. In the 1926 general election, he was elected in a landslide victory as the 26th governor of California and served from 1927 to 1931. Young is considered to have been one of the last governors from the Progressive movement.
William Dennison Stephens was an American federal and state politician. A three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1911 to 1916, Stephens was the 24th governor of California from 1917 to 1923. Prior to becoming Governor, Stephens served as the 27th Lieutenant Governor of California from 1916 to 1917, due to the death of John Morton Eshleman, and served a brief time as Mayor of Los Angeles in 1909 due to the resignation of Arthur C. Harper. He served as the 27th Mayor of Los Angeles in 1909.
Friend William Richardson was an American newspaper publisher and politician. A member of the Progressive Party and later the Republican Party, Richardson was elected as the California State Treasurer from 1915 to 1923, and shortly afterwards as the 25th governor of California from 1923 to 1927. Richardson's governorship marked a sharp reversal in policies from previous administrations, rolling back many of the Progressive reforms and state governmental agencies put in place by previous governors Hiram Johnson and William Stephens.
The 2002 California gubernatorial election was an election that occurred on November 5, 2002. Gray Davis, a Democrat and the incumbent governor of California, defeated the Republican challenger Bill Simon by 5% and was re-elected to a second four-year term. Davis would be recalled less than a year into his next term.
The 1998 California gubernatorial election was an election that occurred on November 3, 1998, resulting in the election of Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis as the state's first Democratic governor in 16 years. Davis won the general election by an almost 20% margin over his closest opponent, Republican Attorney General Dan Lungren. Davis succeeded Pete Wilson who was term limited. The 1998 California gubernatorial election featured the state's only gubernatorial blanket primary, a practice which was later struck down in United States Supreme Court in California Democratic Party v. Jones in 2000.
Thomas Lee Woolwine was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 27th District Attorney of Los Angeles County between 1915 and 1923. He began his career as a Deputy District Attorney in 1908. Woolwine was the Democratic nominee for Governor of California in the 1922 general election, but lost to Friend Richardson. In 1923, he resigned as District Attorney and was succeeded by Asa Keyes.
The 1982 California gubernatorial election occurred on November 2, 1982. The Republican nominee, Attorney General George Deukmejian, narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. Incumbent Governor Jerry Brown did not seek reelection to a third term; he later successfully ran again in 2010 and 2014.
The 1978 California gubernatorial election occurred on November 7, 1978. The Democratic incumbent, Jerry Brown, defeated the Republican nominee Attorney General Evelle J. Younger and independent candidate Ed Clark in a landslide.
The 1946 California gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 1946. It is notable for the incumbent Governor, Earl Warren, being nominated by both the Republican and Democratic parties. Subsequently, Warren won re-election effectively unopposed, receiving more than 90% of the vote. He was the first Governor of the state to win two elections since Hiram Johnson in 1914.
The 1934 California gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1934. Held in the midst of the Great Depression, the 1934 election was amongst the most controversial in the state's political history, pitting conservative Republican Frank Merriam against former Socialist Party member turned Democratic politician Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle. A strong third party challenge came from Progressive Raymond L. Haight, a Los Angeles lawyer campaigning for the political center. Much of the campaign's emphasis was directed at Sinclair's EPIC movement, proposing interventionist reforms to cure the state's ailing economy. Merriam, who had recently assumed the governorship following the death of James Rolph, characterized Sinclair's proposal as a step towards communism.
The 1930 California gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 1930. For the third consecutive election, the incumbent governor was defeated in the Republican primary. After ousting incumbent C. C. Young in the primary, Mayor of San Francisco James Rolph proceeded to win a landslide over Democratic nominee Milton K. Young. Upton Sinclair was the Socialist nominee for the second consecutive election.
The 1926 California gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1926. After ousting incumbent governor Friend William Richardson in the Republican primary, lieutenant governor C. C. Young defeated Justus S. Wardell in a landslide, sweeping every county in the state, the first time this had occurred in a gubernatorial election in California. Writer and activist Upton Sinclair ran on the Socialist ticket, the first of three consecutive gubernatorial elections in which he appeared on the ballot.
The 1918 California gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 1918. William Stephens had defeated James Rolph for the Republican nomination and won the general election in a landslide after Rolph was denied the Democratic Party's nomination. Stephens was the first governor elected with an absolute majority of the vote since Henry Gage in 1898 and won the highest share of the vote since Frederick Low in 1863.
The 1914 California gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1914. The election saw Hiram Johnson re-elected in 1914 as Governor of California on the Progressive Party ticket, nearly tripling his vote total from the 1910 California gubernatorial election.
The 1910 California gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1910. It saw Republican Hiram Johnson elected as the state's governor. Johnson won the election with 45.9% of the popular vote, and became the 23rd governor of California. This was the first gubernatorial election in which Fresno County, Modoc County, San Benito County, Stanislaus County, and Tulare County voted for a Republican candidate. These Republican flips of traditionally Democratic counties foreshadowed the future Republican dominance of California gubernatorial elections that began in the next election.
The 2014 California gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the governor of California, concurrently with elections for the rest of California's executive branch, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
The California Progressive Party, also named California Bull Moose, was a political party that flourished from 1912 to 1944 and lasted through the 1960s.
The 2022 California gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of California, with the statewide top-two primary election taking place on June 7, 2022. Incumbent Democratic Party Governor Gavin Newsom was re-elected to a second term after surviving a recall election in 2021, during his first term.
The 1962 California lieutenant gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1962. Democratic incumbent Glenn M. Anderson narrowly defeated Republican nominee George Christopher with 51.42% of the vote.
