Governor Reagan: His Rise To Power
by By Cannon, Lou
Category: Political Science , American Government , State

Ronald Reagan was a fifty-three-year-old movie actor, past president of the Screen Actors Guild, and former host of the television show General Electric Theater when he gave a dramatic nationally televised speech the year before for Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential nominee. Goldwater lost in a landslide, but the speech had cast Reagan in the new role of potential candidate. Already a hero to conservatives, Reagan reached out to moderates when he announced his candidacy for governor in 1966, in a speech that called for reform of the state's tax system and restoration of the California dream. "Our problems are many but our capacity for solving them is limitless," Reagan said.