Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American politician. He was the 39th Governor of California from 2011 to 2019. He was also the 34th Governor of California from 1975 to 1983. In 2010, he was elected Governor of California. On November 4, 2014, he was re-elected governor. Brown is a member of the Democratic Party. He has also been California's Secretary of State, Attorney General of California, and was the mayor of Oakland for eight years. He ran for President of the United States in the Democratic primaries in 1976, 1980 and in 1992.

Early life
Brown was born in San Francisco, California. His father was Pat Brown who also served as Governor of California until losing re-election to Ronald Reagan. His mother was Bernice Layne Brown. He was raised in San Francisco. Brown studied at Yale University and at the University of California, Berkeley.

Early career
Brown began his political career as a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees 1969 – 1971. He later served as Secretary of State of California 1971 - 1975.

Governor of California
Elected Governor in 1974 at age 36, Brown was the youngest California governor in 111 years.

Brown declined to run for a third term in 1982, instead running for the United States Senate in 1982. However, he was defeated by Republican Mayor Pete Wilson (who himself would later become governor), and many considered his political career to be over. After travelling abroad, Brown returned to California and served as Chairman of the California Democratic Party (1989–1991), resigning to run for the Senate again in 1992.

Running against Meg Whitman in 2010, Brown became the 39th Governor in 2011; on October 7, 2013, he became the longest-serving governor in California history, surpassing Earl Warren. He was reelected in 2014 with sixty percent of the vote.  As a consequence of the 28-year gap between his second and third terms, Brown has been both the sixth-youngest California governor (the youngest since 1863) and the oldest California governor in history.

On Nov 23, 2017 Brown pardoned 70 year old Craig Richard Coley after DNA tests showed he was not involved in the murders of his ex girlfriend and her son in 1978.

Possible 2016 presidential bid
Brown had been thought likely to run for the Democratic nomination for President in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He had expressed some interest in doing so, particularly if Hillary Clinton did not run. However, in an interview in 2014, Brown ruled out running. He did not rule out running for another term as Mayor of Oakland, saying that "I wouldn't mind being mayor of Oakland. But I don't know, when I'm 80 and a half, whether I'll have the same appetite. I'm very excited doing this job. [Still], I don't want to foreclose my options for four years from now."

In an interview by CNN during the second Republican Primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Brown hinted at a possible presidential bid in 2016. He stated that "I'll jump in when the time is appropriate".

Personal life
Brown married his girlfriend of fifteen years, Anne Gust in 2005.

In April 2011 Brown had surgery to remove a basal-cell carcinoma from the right side of his nose. In December 2012, media outlets reported that Brown was being treated for early stage (the precise stage and grade was not stated) localized prostate cancer with a very good health.

References

Other websites

 Jerry Brown for Governor

1938 births
Living people
Governors of California
1976 United States presidential candidates
1980 United States presidential candidates
1992 United States presidential candidates
US Democratic Party politicians
Politicians from San Francisco
Politicians from Oakland, California
21st-century American politicians
20th-century American politicians
American bloggers