Editing Goodwin Knight (section)

===Political career and Governor of California===
Knight began his political career in 1944, when he pursued the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] nomination for the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]]. He bowed out early, though, to back [[Frederick F. Houser|Fred Houser]]. He was elected as the [[List of Lieutenant Governors of California|35th Lieutenant Governor of California]] to serve under Governor [[Earl Warren]] in 1946, then reelected in 1950. He became governor himself when Warren resigned to become [[Chief Justice of the United States]] in 1953.

While Lieutenant Governor, he made a guest appearance on [[Jack Benny show|Jack Benny's radio show]] which aired on May 10, 1953, an episode from San Francisco. He appeared on Benny's TV show four years later, on February 10, 1957.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0613582/ Imdb.com – The Jack Benny Program (TV Series): "Goodwin Knight/George Jessel Show" (1957).]</ref>

[[Image:Goodwin Knight and Dwight Eisenhower.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|Governor Knight and President [[Dwight Eisenhower]] riding in a motorcade]]

As governor, Knight fought for control of the [[Republican Party of California]] with [[United States Senate Majority Leader|U.S. Senate Majority Leader]] [[William Knowland]] and [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Richard Nixon]]. In 1954, Knight was easily elected to his own full term. At first Knight seemed to make an alliance with Knowland, but this began to sour in 1956 when Knowland supported Nixon for renomination as vice president. In 1957, Knowland announced that he would challenge Knight in the 1958 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Partisan primary|primary]] for governor. Knight, known as a [[moderate]], and sympathetic to [[labor union|organized labor]], faced a serious threat from more [[conservatism|conservative]] challengers. In November 1957, induced by [[Norman Chandler]] (GOP-friendly publisher of ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]''), old enemy Nixon and [[President of the United States|President]] [[Dwight Eisenhower]] (among others), Knight announced he would run for Knowland's Senate seat instead of running for governor again as a way to prevent a tough fight between two California Republicans in a political race.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://time.com/archive/6805531/california-party-truce/ | title=CALIFORNIA: Party Truce | date=11 November 1957 }}</ref> Both Knowland and Knight went down in defeat in 1958, with Knowland losing the gubernatorial race to [[Pat Brown|Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Sr.]] and Knight losing the Senate race by over 10% to [[Clair Engle]], severely weakening the heretofore-dominant Republicans in the state. This left Nixon in control of the California party and in line for the presidential nomination, which Knowland and Knight had also desired.

Knight was present at the July 17, 1955, opening of [[Disneyland]], and gave a speech following [[Walt Disney]]'s famous dedication.

In September 1961, Knight announced a bid for a return to the governorship. He later dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination which was won by Nixon, who was in turn defeated by Brown.<ref>{{cite news |title=Goodwin J. Knight of California Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/23/archives/goodwin-j-knight-of-california-dies-governor-19531959-ran-for.html |work=The New York Times |date=23 May 1970 |page=22}}</ref>

In 1964, Knight endorsed [[Nelson Rockefeller]] for the Republican nomination against [[Barry Goldwater]]. Rockefeller was unsuccessful in stopping Goldwater, the darling of the party's growing conservative wing. Knight never ran for political office again.