1974 California gubernatorial election


The 1974 California gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1974. Incumbent governor Ronald Reagan retired after two terms. Jerry Brown, the Secretary of State and son of former governor Pat Brown, defeated Houston Flournoy.
Primary elections were held on June 4. Flournoy won the Republican primary over lieutenant governor Ed Reinecke. Brown won a plurality of the Democratic vote over a field of candidates including San Francisco mayor Joseph Alioto, assembly speaker Bob Moretti
This is the first election since 1958 not to feature an incumbent governor or to feature presidents Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan as the Republican nominee. With Brown’s election, California had a Democratic Governor and two Democratic Senators for the first time since the Civil War.
This is the earliest California gubernatorial election to feature a major party candidate who is still alive as of.

Republican primary

Candidates

Democratic primary

Candidates

General election results

Candidates

Campaign

Brown had statewide name recognition, benefited from the fact Democrats outnumbered Republicans in California, and maintained a lead in most of the early polls. Flournoy began to gain in the polls as the election approached, but Brown won, although by a much smaller margin than predicted. Coincidentally, when Brown ran for Secretary of State four years earlier, he defeated James Flournoy – no relation to Houston – in a very close election.

Results by county

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican