The 1962 California gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1962. The Democratic incumbent, Pat Brown, won re-election over former U.S. vice president and 1960 Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon.
Brown faced nominal opposition throughout the Democratic primary. Emphasizing his record as governor, and following a successful public relations campaign to make Brown appear forceful and decisive, Brown would crush his opponents and won with over 80 percent of the vote.
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.
Nixon was born into a poor family of Quakers in Yorba Linda, Southern California. He graduated from Whittier College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1934 and from Duke University School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1937, practiced law in California, and then moved with his wife Pat to Washington, D.C., in 1942 to work for the federal government. After serving in the Naval Reserve during World War II, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. His work on the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist. In 1950, he was elected to the Senate. Nixon was the running mate of Eisenhower, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 1952 and 1956 elections. Nixon served for eight years as vice president, and his two terms saw an increase in the notability of the office. He narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy. After his loss in the 1962 race for governor of California, Nixon announced his retirement from politics. However, he ran again for the presidency in 1968 and defeated the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
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