Governor of California

Between 1967 and 1975, Ronald Reagan held two terms as governor of California. Reagan approved tax increases during his first term in order to balance the budget and froze government hiring. As a result of his changes, California's budget went from being in deficit to being in surplus during his second term, when he concentrated more on the welfare system.

Ronald Reagan visited Hollywood in 1937. He appeared in more than 50 films during the course of his more than 25-year acting career. Being a union leader was connected to his earliest political actions. From 1947 to 1952 and again from 1958 to 1959, Reagan presided over the Screen Actors Guild, the actors' union. Following his well-known "A Time for Choosing" speech in support of Republican nominee Barry Goldwater during the 1964 US presidential election campaign, Reagan's national political career took off.

In the 1966 California governor's race, Republican Ronald Reagan outpolled incumbent Democrat Edmund G. Brown by nearly a million votes. He was re-elected in 1970, and from 1967 to 1975, he presided as governor of California. He did not run for a third term in office. Reagan implemented significant reforms to the welfare system during his second term as governor after first freezing government hiring and approving tax increases to balance the budget. During his tenure as governor, Reagan turned California's budget deficit into a surplus.