Born in Lake Forest, Illinois, Wilson graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law after serving in the United States Marine Corps.

He was also an advocate for California Proposition 187, which established a state-run citizenship screening system with the intention of preventing illegal immigrants from using social services.

Peter Barton Wilson was born on August 23, 1933, in Lake Forest, Illinois, a suburb north of Chicago, at the height of the Great Depression.

In the fall of 1951, Pete Wilson enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he received a United States Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship, majored in English, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree.

After graduating from Yale, Wilson served for three years in the United States Marine Corps as an infantry officer, eventually becoming a platoon commander.

Upon completion of his Marine Corps service, Wilson earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in June 1962.

[2][3] After passing the bar exam on his fourth attempt,[4] Wilson began his practice as a criminal defense attorney in San Diego, but he found such work to be low-paying and personally repugnant.

Wilson switched to a more conventional law practice and continued his activity in local politics, working for Barry Goldwater's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1964.

He put in long hours for the Goldwater campaign, earning the friendship of local Republican boosters so necessary for a political career, and in 1966, at the age of thirty-three, he ran for, and won a seat in the California State Assembly, succeeding Clair Burgener.

However, in May 1972 the Republican National Committee voted to move the convention to Miami because of a scandal involving a donation to the event by ITT Corporation, as well as concerns about the proposed venue (the San Diego Sports Arena) and the adequacy of hotel space.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed Pendleton to chair the United States Commission on Civil Rights, a position that he held from 1981 until his death in San Diego in 1988.

Reagan quipped that the last thing he wanted to see was both of his home state's U.S. Senate seats falling into Democrats' hands, especially to be occupied by the man who succeeded him as governor.

A major contributing factor may also have been a late influx of the Armenian vote in the California Governor's race between George Deukmejian and Tom Bradley.

[10][11] In June 1984, Wilson voted in favor of legislation restricting federal highway funds for states that did not raise the minimum age for drinking to 21.

[12][13] In May 1985, Wilson underwent surgery for a ruptured appendix at Bethesda Naval Hospital, concurrently as fellow Republican Senator Bob Dole hoped to gather enough votes for the Reagan administration's 1986 budget.

On October 2, 1990, Wilson, away from Washington to campaign for California governor, became the only sitting senator from either party to not vote on the nomination of David Souter for Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.

[27] On July 12, 1991, Wilson signed a bill mandating that parents neglecting paying for child support could warrant stiff fines and potential suspensions of business and professional licenses.

[28] On July 24, 1991, Wilson signed a bill requiring mass transit rail lines to be built underground in the event construction take place in the residential neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

The bill, requested by the residents of those neighborhoods, was aimed at easing "homeowners' fear of noise from ground-level trains running along a proposed rail route that parallels Chandler and Victory boulevards".

[29] Less than a year into his first term as governor, Wilson vetoed AB 101, a bill written to prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the state.

However, it was Wilson's uncompromising stance on reducing education spending that led to the budget impasse of 1992,[36] leaving state workers without paychecks from July until September, when the California Supreme Court forced the Governor and the legislature to agree to terms that ended the sixty-three-day stand-off.

[47] On December 14, 1991, in an address to Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Wilson criticized the Democratic leaders of the state legislature for their opposition to his budget-balancing plan and "spent most of his hour at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles railing against the state's entitlement programs – including education and Medi-Cal, but especially Aid to Families with Dependent Children and other welfare programs".

[48] On January 8, 1993, Wilson submitted the 1993 spending plan, advocating an immediate cut in welfare grants by 4.2% that would be followed 6 months later by a larger reduction of 15% that would be directed at recipient families with an able-bodied adult.

Since 1995 the following states have had similar ballot initiatives or laws passed: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.

[65] On September 26, 1995, Wilson signed a bill authorizing the possible use of the death penalty toward any individual who committed a murder amid a carjacking or killed a juror.

[67] Despite a campaign promise to the people of California not to do so, Wilson also unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for President in the 1996 election, making formal announcements on both coasts.

Later that month, a Los Angeles Times poll found 23% of Californians believed Wilson should seek the presidency, including 30% of state voters identifying as Republican.

[73] On September 29, 1995, Wilson told supporters in Sacramento that he was dropping out of the Republican primary, citing he lacked the "necessary campaign funds to take this message to the people who need to hear it".

[74][75] After leaving office, Wilson spent 2 years as a managing director of Pacific Capital Group, a merchant bank based in Los Angeles.

[84] On May 23, 2009, Wilson gave the commencement speech and received an honorary degree from the San Diego State University of Professional Studies and Fine Arts.