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 County results Engle: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Knight: 50–60% | |||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in California |
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The 1958 United States Senate election in California was held on November 4, 1958.
Incumbent senator William F. Knowland opted not to run for re-election, choosing instead to run for election as governor. Incumbent governor Goodwin Knight exchanged places with Knowland and lost to U.S. Representative Clair Engle in the midst of a national landslide for the Democratic Party.
Knowland's decision to run for governor came in spite of strong opposition from Knight, who had wanted to run for re-election rather than for the Senate. The bad impression left by the feud between the two politicians, along with labor mobilization against Proposition 18, was a major factor in the Democratic landslide in California in 1958.[1][2]
This was one of 15 seats Democrats gained from the Republican Party in 1958, part of a record swing.
- ^ Starr, Kevin (2011). Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950–1963. Oxford University Press. pp. 212–216. ISBN 978-0-19-515377-4.
- ^ Anderson, Totton J. (1959). "The 1958 Election in California". The Western Political Quarterly. 12 (1). [University of Utah, Sage Publications, Inc., Western Political Science Association]: 276–300. ISSN 0043-4078. JSTOR 444055. Retrieved May 7, 2024.