==Governor of California (1967–1975)==
[[Image:Reagangovernor.jpg|left|thumb|275px|Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan at the Victory celebration for California Governor at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California 11/8/66.]] In the 1966 gubernatorial campaign, conservatives generally supported Reagan over George Christopher, the Republican mayor of [[San Francisco]]. Already at the 1966 campaign Reagan began to stress Judeo-Christianity.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/reagan/ The American Experience | Reagan]. [http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/filmmore/transcript/transcript1.html Enhanced Transcript].<blockquote><small>Lyn Nofziger, Press Secretary: They looked at Ronald Reagan, that dumb actor and they said, oh man, this is the guy we want to run against. He has no political experience, ah he's not going to be able to handle himself well . Stu Spencer: So we devised a technique where he would give his twenty-minute speech and incidentally Ronald Reagan wrote all his own speeches when he ran for Governor in 1966. He'd give the twenty-minute speech and we'd open it to twenty minutes of Q and A for... for the people there at the meeting or the press, and if he could handle those questions we felt we could get over the hump of here's an empty person who doesn't know anything about government or doesn't have any real ideas. Reporter: Ronnie, where do you stand on the death penalty. Reagan: You just expressed a question which is also as much on the minds of the people in the state as Berkeley. This too is a question asked all over the state. And as I've answered to those other people, I would tell you I think all of us have wavered back and forth on this issue because of our Judeo-Christian background our questioning as to our right to take human life. But I believe we have the right to take human life in defense of our own.</small></small></ref> Reagan defeated Christopher, and incumbent [[liberal]] [[Democrat]] [[Pat Brown]] in the general election, taking fifty-three of California's fifty-eight counties. Reagan's strategists wanted to emphasize libertarian support for smaller government and less taxation, as the state verged on a revolt against high property taxes. As student and black unrest exploded in the headlines, Reagan's call for [[Law and order]] won the votes of former liberals. Reagan's victory marked the end of New Deal liberalism in California.<ref>Dallek, Matthew. "Liberalism Overthrown." ''American Heritage'' (1996) 47(6): 39+ Fulltext online at Ebsco</ref>
Reagan inherited an enormous budget deficit from the Brown administration. In his first year as Governor, Reagan froze government spending and cut ten percent of the spending budget in each department of the government. At the end of his two terms, the $194 million deficit had been transformed into a $550 million surplus. The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' editorialized, "We exaggerate very little when we say that Reagan has saved the state from bankruptcy.<ref>[http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1980 1980 Reagan VS. Carter VS. Anderson]</ref>