Although he resigned after several months to return to the private sector in California, he continued to write many of the major political and policy speeches as chief speechwriter on Reagan's successful 1984 re-election campaign and throughout the second term, including the 1984 nomination acceptance speech, the 1985 remarks at the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, and the 1988 Republican National Convention farewell address.

He was raised with his three brothers on a 60-acre (24 ha), cotton, walnut, and grape farm founded by his paternal grandfather, who had escaped from Armenia ahead of the Armenian genocide and immigrated to the United States in 1912.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in political science, with honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1966 and his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 1969.

[4][5] In January 1970, shortly after graduating from Columbia Law School, he joined the Nixon Administration as part of the national goals research staff.

[10] He helped coin the term "fatally flawed", which was used throughout the campaign, referencing the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) II with the Soviet Union.

[2] He wrote the 1984 nomination acceptance speech and was one of only two campaign aides who accompanied President Reagan aboard Air Force One throughout his landslide re-election.

Khachigian also, along with Stuart Spencer, James A. Baker III, Richard Darman, David Stockman, and Michael Deaver, helped prepare Reagan for his presidential debates with Democrat Walter Mondale.

In the previous month, the Administration had announced that Reagan would visit the Kolmeshohe Cemetery near Bitburg, at the suggestion of Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany, to pay respects to the soldiers interred there.

The visit was intended to be symbolic of the goodwill between the two countries, but unbeknownst to the Reagan Administration, 49 of the graves contained the remains of men who had served in the Waffen-SS.

[15] Nationally prominent political commentator Bob Novak wrote that Khachigian is "perhaps the state's premier Republican strategist and wordsmith.

For Herschensohn's dramatic upset victory, The San Francisco Chronicle's leading political reporter, Jerry Roberts, described Khachigian as "the wily veteran GOP message-maker" and dubbed him "best manager" for his efforts.

[16] Khachigian counseled Pete Wilson in his winning U.S. Senate and gubernatorial campaigns, and in 1998 guided the successful statewide retention election of California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin.

[17] In addition to his work on the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush-Quayle campaigns, he served as a national senior adviser to presidential nominee Bob Dole in 1996.