Ronald Reagan

Reagan's California governorship from 1967 to 1975 is more complicated than his later image. He campaigned against big government but signed the largest state tax increase in history at the time, a liberal abortion law in 1967 he later regretted, and a 1971 welfare reform negotiated with Democratic legislators that tightened eligibility and raised benefits for the neediest. His confrontations with Berkeley protesters gave him his national profile. The welfare deal became a template for his presidency.