1966 California gubernatorial election

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 student protests at UC Berkeley (e.g., the Free Speech Movement). 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 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 two-thirds of the votes in the Republican primary over George Christopher, the moderate Republican former mayor of San Francisco, and went into the general election with a great deal of momentum. After pollsters discovered that the UC Berkeley student protests were a major priority of Republican voters, Reagan repeatedly promised to "clean up the mess at Berkeley."[3] 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 serious gaffe: he ran a television commercial in which he used a rhetorical question to remind a group of school children that "an actor" (i.e., John Wilkes Booth) had killed Abraham Lincoln.[4] The crude comparison of Reagan to Booth based on their common professional background as actors did not go over well with the California electorate and led to a further decline of the Brown campaign.[4] 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%).

• Anderson, Totton J.; Lee, Eugene C. (1967), "The 1966 Election in California", Western Political Quarterly, 20#2 pp. 535–554 in JSTOR
• Becker, Jules, and Douglas A. Fuchs. "How two major California dailies covered Reagan vs. Brown." Journalism Quarterly 44.4 (1967): 645–653.
• Cannon, Lou. Governor Reagan: His rise to power (PublicAffairs, 2005).
• Cannon, Lou (2001), Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio (PublicAffairs, 2001)
• Cannon, Lou. "Preparing for the Presidency: The Political Education of Ronald Reagan" in A Legacy of Leadership: Governors and American History ed. by Clayton McClure Brooks (2008) pp 137–155. online
• Dallek, Matthew. The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (2000), 1966 election;
• De Groot, Gerard J. "'A Goddamned Electable Person': The 1966 California Gubernatorial Campaign of Ronald Reagan." History 82#267 (1997) pp: 429-448 online.
• De Groot, Gerard J. "Ronald Reagan and Student Unrest in California, 1966-1970." Pacific Historical Review 65.1 (1996): 107–129. online free
• Edwards, Anne. Early Reagan: The Rise to Power (New York, 1987), includes 1966 election
• McKenna, Kevin. "The 'Total Campaign': How Ronald Reagan Overwhelmingly Won the California Gubernatorial Election of 1966." (Thesis, Columbia University, 2010)
• Pawel, Miriam. (2018). The Browns of California: the family dynasty that transformed a state and shaped a nation. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Rapoport, R. California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown. Berkeley: Nolo Press (1982) ISBN 0-917316-48-7.
• Rarick, Ethan (2006), California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 9780520939844 summary
• Rarick, Ethan. "The Brown Dynasty." in Modern American Political Dynasties: A Study of Power, Family, and Political Influence ed by Kathleen Gronnerud and Scott J. Spitzer. (2018): 211–30.
• Reeves, Michelle. "Obey the Rules or Get Out": Ronald Reagan's 1966 Gubernatorial Campaign and the 'Trouble in Berkeley'." Southern California Quarterly (2010): 275–305. in JSTOR
• Rice, Richard B. The Elusive Eden: A New History of California. (McGraw-Hill, 2012). ). ISBN 978-0-07-338556-3.
• Rogin, Michael Paul, John L. Shover. Political Change in California: Critical Elections and Social Movements, 1890-1966 (Greenwood, 1970).
• Rorabaugh, William J. Berkeley at War, the 1960s (Oxford University Press, 1989).
• Schuparra, Kurt. Triumph of the Right: The Rise of the California Conservative Movement, 1945-1966 (M.E. Sharpe, 1998).

• Autumn and Cardboard: The 1966 California Gubernatorial Election
• Reagan Heritage
• Bepress (pg 13)
• SFgate