William F. Knowland - Gubernatorial Campaign Catastrophe

Gubernatorial Campaign Catastrophe

In 1958, Knowland decided to run for Governor of California instead of re-election to the Senate. His father was shaken by the decision. The elder Knowland cherished the U.S. Senate seat, which voters had denied him in 1914.

Knowland secured the Republican nomination for governor after a brutal contest with incumbent Goodwin J. Knight. In the "Big Switch," Knight agreed to run for Knowland's U.S. Senate seat while Knowland ran for governor. Many felt Knowland would use the governorship to control the California Republican delegation in 1960, and try to deny Nixon the Presidential nomination and take it himself.

A critical issue in the campaign was Proposition 18, an initiative to enact a Right-to-work law in California. Knowland endorsed Proposition 18 in excessive language, but in fact Proposition 18 was highly unpopular and the endorsement hurt Knowland. He was soundly defeated, 40% to Brown's 59%, in the general election by the Democratic candidate, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown. (Representative Clair Engle defeated Knight.) This effectively ended Knowland's political career. Many California Republicans were defeated. Among Joseph R. Knowland's protegés, Representative John J. Allen, Jr. lost his House seat to Jeffery Cohelan. and Alameda County Supervisor Kent D. Pursel lost his race for the State Senate to John W. Holmdahl. To pay off some of Knowland's campaign debts, his father had to sell his Oakland Tribune radio station KLX to Crowell Collier Broadcasting. William F. Knowland never again ran for any elective office.