Ronald Reagan San Quentin's gas chamber. When Reagan was governor in 1969, he signed the Family Law Act, which was an amalgam of two bills that had been written and revised by the California State Legislature over more than two years. It became the first no-fault divorce legislation in the United States. Years later, no-fault divorce became Reagan's greatest regret. Reagan's terms as governor helped to shape the policies he would pursue in his later political career as president. By campaigning on a platform of sending "the welfare bums back to work," he spoke out against the idea of the welfare state.
Presidency of Ronald Reagan as the ninth greatest president. A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association’s Presidents and Executive Politics section also ranked Reagan as the ninth greatest president. A 2006 poll of historians ranked the Iran-Contra affair as the ninth-worst mistake made by a sitting president. Presidency of Ronald Reagan The presidency of Ronald Reagan began on January 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican, took office following a landslide victory over Democratic incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. Reagan was