The 1978 California gubernatorial election occurred on November 7, 1978. The Democratic incumbent, Jerry Brown, defeated the Republican nominee Attorney General Evelle J. Younger and independent candidate Ed Clark in a landslide.
Primary elections were held on June 6. The party primaries were overshadowed by the results of Proposition 13, an initiative to alter the state property tax formula, which was approved on the same day. Brown had only minor opposition in the Democratic primary, and Younger defeated LAPD chief Edward M. Davis and Ken Maddy in the Republican primary. San Diego mayor Pete Wilson and John Briggs, the sponsor of Proposition 6 on the November ballot, also ran.
Democratic primary
Candidates
- John Hancock Abbott
- Alex D. Aloia
- Gene Atherton
- Jerry Brown, incumbent governor since 1975
- Lowell Darling
- Jules Kimmett
- Raymond V. Liebenberg
- David Rock
- George B. Roden
Republican primary
Candidates
- John Briggs, state senator from Fullerton and sponsor of Proposition 6
- Elmer L. Crutchley
- Edward M. Davis, former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
- Kenneth L. Maddy, state senator from Fresno and Senate minority leader
- True R. Slocum Jr.
- Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General of California
- Pete Wilson, mayor of San Diego
General election
Candidates
- Jerry Brown, incumbent governor since 1975 (Democratic)
- Ed Clark, former chair of the Libertarian Party of California and Libertarian Party of New York (Independent)
- Theresa F. Dietrich (American Independent)
- Marilyn Seals (Peace and Freedom)
- Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General of California (Republican)
The primary battle left Younger short of money, while Brown had a much larger campaign fund and won reelection in a landslide.
Results by county
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
- Alpine
- Amador
- Butte
- Calaveras
- Contra Costa
- El Dorado
- Kern
- Lake
- Marin
- Mariposa
- Monterey
- Napa
- Nevada
- Orange
- Riverside
- San Benito
- San Diego
- San Joaquin
- San Luis Obispo
- Santa Barbara
- Stanislaus
- Tuolumne
- Ventura
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
Analysis
Jerry Brown's landslide victory ended three of the remaining four very long streaks of Republican dominance in California counties. Brown was the first Democrat to ever carry Alpine County in a gubernatorial election since its establishment in 1864. The same was true for Orange County; it had always backed the Republican candidate since its establishment in 1889. Meanwhile, Santa Barbara County backed a Democratic candidate for the first time since 1882. After this election, the lone county with a long history of backing Republicans was Mono County, which had never backed a Democratic candidate since its founding in 1861 and would not vote Democratic until 1998.
Conversely, Jerry Brown remains the most recent Democrat to carry any of the following counties: Butte County, Calaveras County, El Dorado County, Kern County, Lassen County, Madera County, Mariposa County, Placer County, Plumas County, Shasta County, Sierra County, Siskiyou County, Tehama County, Tuolumne County, and Yuba County.