Governorship of Ronald Reagan Governorship of Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was the Governor of California for two terms, the first beginning in 1967 and the second in 1971. He left office in 1975, declining to run for a third term. Robert Finch, Edwin Reinecke, and John L. Harmer served as lieutenant governors over the course of his governorship. California Republicans were impressed with Reagan's political views and charisma after his "A Time for Choosing" speech, and nominated him as the Republican party candidate for Governor in 1966. Reagan's campaign emphasized two main themes: "to send the welfare bums back to work", and regarding burgeoning
Ronald Reagan nomination, he received 307 write-in votes in New Hampshire, 388 votes as an Independent on Wyoming's ballot, and a single electoral vote from a faithless elector in the November election from the state of Washington, which Ford had won over Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter. After the campaign, Reagan remained in the public debate with the Ronald Reagan Radio Commentary series and his political action committee, Citizens for the Republic, which was later revived in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009 by the Reagan biographer Craig Shirley. The 1980 presidential election featured Reagan against incumbent President Jimmy Carter and was conducted amid a