California gubernatorial election, 1966

California gubernatorial election, 1966
	Election results by county; Reagan: 50-60% 60-70% 70-80%Brown: 50–60%
Governor before election; Pat Brown ; Democratic	Elected Governor; Ronald Reagan ; Republican

Last updated March 17, 2019

The California gubernatorial election, 1966 was held on November 8, 1966. The election was a contest between incumbent Governor Pat Brown, the Democratic candidate, and actor Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate. Reagan mobilized conservative voters and defeated Brown.

Governor of California head of state and of government of the U.S. state of California

The Governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The California Governor is the chief executive of the state government and the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Military Reserve.

Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown Sr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 32nd Governor of California from 1959 to 1967. Born in San Francisco, Brown had an early interest in speaking and politics; he earned a LL.B. degree in 1927, and subsequently began legal practice. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, he was elected attorney general of California in 1950 before becoming the state's governor in 1959. As governor, Brown embarked on massive projects, building important infrastructure and redefining the state's higher education system. He was never a serious contender in the national conventions, although frequently on primary ballots as California's favorite son. He lost his bid for a third term as governor in 1966 to future President Ronald Reagan, but his legacy has since earned him regard as the builder of modern California. His son Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. was the 34th and 39th Governor of California; his daughter, Kathleen Brown, was the 29th California State Treasurer.

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

Primary results

Democratic

1966 Democratic primary election results^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Pat Brown (inc.)	1,355,262	51.91
	Democratic	Sam Yorty	981,088	37.58
	Democratic	Carlton Benjamin Goodlett	95,476	3.66
	Democratic	Wallace J. Duffy	77,029	2.95
	Democratic	Dale Alexander	43,453	1.66
	Democratic	Ronald Reagan (write-in)	27,422	1.05
	Democratic	Ingram W. Goad	18,088	0.69
Total votes			2,597,818	100

Republican

1966 Republican primary election results^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	1,417,623	64.62
	Republican	George Christopher	675,683	30.80
	Republican	Warren N. Dorn	44,812	2.04
	Republican	William Penn Patrick	40,887	1.86
	Republican	Joseph R. Maxwell	7,052	0.32
	Republican	Sam Yorty (write-in)	5,993	0.27
	Republican	Pat Brown (inc.) (write-in)	1,700	0.08
Total votes			2,193,750	100

Election background

Incumbent Edmund G. (Pat) Brown had been a relatively popular Democrat in what was, at the time, a Republican leaning state. 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. His decision to seek a 3rd term as governor (after promising earlier that he would not do so) also hurt his popularity. His diminishing support was evidenced by a tough battle in the Democratic primary – normally not a concern for an incumbent. Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty received 38% of the primary vote while Brown barely received 52%, a very low number for an incumbent in a primary election.

The Vice President of the United States is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the President of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The Vice President is also an officer in the legislative branch, as President of the Senate. In this capacity, the Vice President presides over Senate deliberations, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote. The Vice President also presides over joint sessions of Congress.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974. He had previously served as the 36th vice president of the United States from 1953 to 1961, and prior to that as both a U.S. representative and senator from California.

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Minnesota from 1949 to 1964 and 1971 to 1978. He was the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1968 presidential election, losing to Republican nominee Richard Nixon.

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, and went into the general election with a great deal of momentum. At first Brown ran a low key campaign, declaring that running the state was his biggest priority. As Reagan's lead in the polls increased, however, Brown began to panic and made a gaffe when he told a group of school children that an actor, John Wilkes Booth, had killed Abraham Lincoln.^[3] The comparison of Reagan to Booth as being actors did not go over well and led to a further decline of the Brown campaign. Come election day, Reagan was ahead in the polls and favored to win a relatively close election. However, Reagan won decisively; his nearly 1 million vote plurality surprised even his strongest supporters. Brown won in only three counties: Alameda, Plumas, and San Francisco. He narrowly won Alameda by about 2,000 votes (.5%) and Plumas by about 100 votes (1.6%).

Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975.

George Christopher was a Greek-American politician, and the 34th Mayor of San Francisco, serving in that office from January 1956 until January 1964. He is to date the last Republican to be elected mayor of San Francisco; all San Francisco mayors since he left office have been Democrats.

John Wilkes Booth was an American actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865. He was a member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and a well-known actor in his own right. He was also a Confederate sympathizer, vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln and strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery in the United States.

General election results

1966 gubernatorial election, California^[4]^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	3,742,913	57.55
	Democratic	Pat Brown (incumbent)	2,749,174	42.27
	Other	Various candidates	11,358	0.18
Total votes			6,503,445	100.00
Turnout				57.70
	Republican gain from Democratic

Results by county

County	Reagan	Votes	Brown	Votes
Mono	77.84%	1,205	22.16%	343
Orange	72.15%	293,413	27.85%	113,275
Sutter	70.43%	9,828	29.57%	4,126
Calaveras	67.77%	3,810	32.23%	1,812
Butte	67.48%	25,443	32.52%	12,263
Glenn	66.35%	4,676	33.65%	2,371
Inyo	66.19%	3,961	33.81%	2,023
Nevada	65.85%	7,373	34.15%	3,823
Alpine	65.78%	148	34.22%	77
Del Norte	63.99%	3,409	36.01%	1,918
San Diego	63.82%	252,070	36.18%	142,890
Santa Barbara	63.54%	50,284	36.46%	28,853
Lake	63.09%	5,499	36.91%	3,217
El Dorado	63.08%	9,189	36.92%	5,378
Tehama	63.01%	6,629	36.99%	3,891
Imperial	62.87%	12,372	37.13%	7,307
Riverside	62.77%	84,501	37.23%	50,112
Modoc	62.73%	1,946	37.27%	1,156
Kern	62.67%	64,716	37.33%	38,543
San Luis Obispo	62.55%	21,528	37.45%	12,891
Trinity	62.27%	2,050	37.73%	1,242
San Bernardino	62.19%	121,916	37.81%	74,120
Colusa	62.09%	2,806	37.91%	1,713
Mariposa	61.51%	1,811	38.49%	1,133
Santa Cruz	61.47%	26,988	38.53%	16,913
Monterey	61.06%	35,944	38.94%	22,923
San Benito	60.96%	3,565	39.04%	2,283
Ventura	60.94%	58,068	39.06%	37,224
San Joaquin	60.77%	54,647	39.23%	35,281
Sonoma	60.68%	41,516	39.32%	26,898
Yuba	60.52%	6,658	39.48%	4,344
Tulare	59.95%	33,095	40.05%	22,109
Mendocino	59.81%	10,161	40.19%	6,827
Napa	59.53%	17,740	40.47%	12,060
Amador	58.33%	2,985	41.67%	2,132
Tuolumne	58.21%	4,845	41.79%	3,479
Los Angeles	57.26%	1,389,995	42.74%	1,037,663
Marin	57.21%	40,411	42.79%	30,230
Humboldt	57.20%	19,210	42.80%	14,374
Kings	55.79%	9,957	44.21%	7,890
Santa Clara	55.40%	164,970	44.60%	132,793
Sierra	55.27%	650	44.73%	526
Contra Costa	55.13%	107,543	44.87%	87,525
Shasta	54.83%	15,155	45.17%	12,486
Placer	54.61%	14,664	45.39%	12,187
Stanislaus	54.37%	31,473	45.63%	26,418
Siskiyou	54.21%	7,057	45.79%	5,962
Madera	54.18%	7,490	45.82%	6,335
Fresno	53.96%	70,182	46.04%	59,869
Lassen	53.95%	3,190	46.05%	2,723
San Mateo	53.71%	107,498	46.29%	92,654
Merced	53.01%	14,103	46.99%	12,499
Sacramento	50.91%	109,801	49.09%	105,861
Solano	50.15%	23,187	49.85%	23,047
Yolo	50.08%	13,073	49.92%	13,032
Alameda	49.75%	189,055	50.25%	190,968
Plumas	49.18%	2,658	50.82%	2,747
San Francisco	41.11%	114,796	58.89%	164,435

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References

↑ "Our Campaigns - CA Governor - D Primary Race - Jun 07, 1966" . Retrieved 4 August 2015.
↑ "Our Campaigns - CA Governor - R Primary Race - Jun 07, 1966" . Retrieved 4 August 2015.
↑ Reagan, Michael; Denney, Jim (2010), The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness, p. 111, ISBN 978-0-312-64454-3
↑ 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 . Retrieved February 6, 2017.
↑ Archived September 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.

External links

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[1] "Our Campaigns - CA Governor - D Primary Race - Jun 07, 1966" . Retrieved 4 August 2015.

[2] "Our Campaigns - CA Governor - R Primary Race - Jun 07, 1966" . Retrieved 4 August 2015.

[3] Reagan, Michael; Denney, Jim (2010), The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness, p. 111, ISBN 978-0-312-64454-3

[4] 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 . Retrieved February 6, 2017.

[5] Archived September 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.

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