The 1958 California gubernatorial election was held on Tuesday November 4, Democratic candidate Pat Brown won the first of his two terms as
governor of California against Republican senator
William Knowland.
California was considered a Republican stronghold in the post-World War II era, electing Republican governors
Earl Warren and
Goodwin Knight, as well as senators
Richard Nixon, Knowland, and
Thomas Kuchel. Knowland was a prestigious two-term Senator who had served as Senate Majority Leader and Senate Minority Leader. His seat was considered safe going into the 1958 midterm elections, but he stunned everyone when he announced his intention to run for governor instead of re-election to the Senate. This was especially surprising because California had a relatively popular Republican governor in
Goodwin Knight who was also expected to be re-elected. Knowland coerced Knight into a "backroom deal" in which Knowland and Knight would "trade places", with Knight running for Knowland's Senate seat. Knight really had no desire to be Senator and in later years lamented how Knowland "strongarmed" him into the switch. Knowland thought being governor would enhance his chances of challenging another Californian,
Richard Nixon, for the 1960 Republican presidential nomination. For their part, the Democrats nominated popular state Attorney General
Pat Brown, who was the only Democrat that held a statewide office in a Republican leaning state. As it turned out, the Knowland-Knight switch was not popular with California voters. Brown steadily gained in the polls and defeated Knowland for governor, and Knight lost to Congressman
Clair Engle in the Senate race.
Brown is the last Democratic gubernatorial nominee to have won Glenn, Inyo, Sutter, and Tulare Counties. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate would not win Butte and Riverside Counties again until
1978.
Anderson, Totton J. “The 1958 Election in California.” Western Political Quarterly 12#1 (1959), pp. 276–300.
online
Anderson, Totton J. "Extremism in California Politics: The Brown-Knowland and Brown-Nixon Campaigns Compared." Political Research Quarterly 16.2 (1963): 371+.
Bell, Jonathan. "Social Democracy and the Rise of the Democratic Party in California, 1950–1964." Historical Journal 49.2 (2006): 497-524.
online
Pawel, Miriam. (2018). The Browns of California : the family dynasty that transformed a state and shaped a nation. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Rapoport, R. California Dreaming: The Political Odyssey of Pat & Jerry Brown. Berkeley: Nolo Press (1982)
ISBN0-917316-48-7.
Rarick, Ethan. "The Brown Dynasty." in Modern American Political Dynasties: A Study of Power, Family, and Political Influence ed by Kathleen Gronnerud and Scott J. Spitzer. (2018): 211-30.
Rice, Richard B. (2012). The Elusive Eden: A New History of California. New York: McGraw-Hill.
ISBN978-0-07-338556-3.
Rogin, Michael Paul, John L. Shover. Political Change in California: Critical Elections and Social Movements, 1890-1966 (Greenwood, 1970).
Schuparra, Kurt. Triumph of the Right: The Rise of the California Conservative Movement, 1945-1966 (M.E. Sharpe, 1998).