[1][2] California Republicans were impressed with Reagan's conservative political views and charisma after his "A Time for Choosing" speech for the Goldwater presidential campaign in 1964.

David S. Broder called it “the most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic convention with the ‘Cross of Gold’ speech.

Incumbent Governor Pat Brown intervened indirectly in the Republican primary to undermine former San Francisco mayor George Christopher, thinking that Reagan, as a politically inexperienced movie actor, would be easier to beat.

His high visibility Hollywood supporters included Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Dinah Shore, George Burns, James Cagney, John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, as well as producers Walt Disney and Taft B. Schreiber of MCA.

Funding came from California businessman and financiers including Union Oil chief executive A.C. “Cy” Rubel; auto dealer Holmes Tuttle; Henry Salvatori; Alfred S. Bloomingdale; Leonard Firestone; and Justin Dart.

[20] Most of those employees targeted for cuts would be psychiatric technicians and support staff comprising nearly 16 percent of hospital workers.

[22] In 1967, Reagan signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, a deinstitutionalization bill that ended the practice of sending patients to mental institutions indefinitely or without their consent.

A bipartisan majority in the California legislature supported a new law introduced by Democratic state senator Anthony Beilenson, the "Therapeutic Abortion Act".

The legislature dropped that provision and Reagan signed the law, which decriminalized abortions when done to protect the health of the mother.

The key factor was the sudden emergence of a woman's movement that introduced a very new idea—women had a basic right to control their bodies and could choose to have an abortion or not.

[27] Reagan reacted to the Black Panther Party's strategy of copwatching by signing the Mulford Act in 1967[28] to prohibit the public carrying of firearms.

The act was California's most restrictive piece of gun control legislation, with critics saying that it was "overreacting to the political activism of organizations such as the Black Panthers".

The student newspaper headlines blared: Reagan then called out 2,200 state National Guard troops to occupy the city of Berkeley for two weeks in order to crack down on the protesters.

Rorabaugh argues that Reagan was unable to break the power of liberal faculty and administrators, or of radical students.

However those groups were astonished by Reagan's popularity, and drastically underestimated the force of conservative reaction against higher education.

Nixon told his deputy national security adviser Alexander Haig to cancel any future meetings with any African leader who had not voted with the United States on Taiwan.

However, by the time of the convention Nixon had 692 delegate votes, 25 more than he needed to secure the nomination, followed by Rockefeller with Reagan in third place.

The only execution during Reagan's governorship was on April 12, 1967, when Aaron Mitchell's sentence was carried out by the state in San Quentin's gas chamber.

Facing a strong Democratic opposition in the legislature, Reagan negotiated compromises with Speaker Bob Moretti that would be attractive to key elements of the Republican base.

He cut deals with Moretti, who wanted to satisfy his Democratic base and also build a leadership image as he planned to run for governor himself in 1974.

Reagan insisted on adding a major restriction: local governments and school districts could not raise taxes without voter approval.

[47][48][49] After a string of successes climaxed by a reelection landslide, Reagan in 1973 set his eye on national issues in the 1976 presidential election.

The opposition was led by Assembly Speaker Bob Moretti who forged a coalition of Democratic activists, labor unions, the League of Women Voters, and other organizations.

[50][51][52] During the last year of his tenure, Casa de los Gobernadores was completed as the new official gubernatorial residence, though Reagan never inhabited it.

[57] With his eye on national politics, Governor Reagan opposed the negative income tax policy recommended by Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter and developed by Milton Friedman.

However, his fears were not supported by the findings of scholarly analysis of the fertility of women receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children funds.