As you can see from the link article below - Reagan was elected six times to the Screen Actors Guild. He was a democrat all those years... a union leader.
Reagan LEFT the democrat party in the early 60’s... then became a ‘viable (Republican) candidate in 1964’. The time between ‘early 1960’s and 1964 is NOT that long a time period. Certainly NOT decades.
http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2013/06/how-ronald-reagan-won-his-first-election/
Reagan had some experience with campaigns in 1966. He had been a union leader as an actor, and he was elected six times to head the Screen Actors Guild.
The former Hollywood actor became active in the Republican Party in California after leaving the Democratic Party in the early 1960s.
Reagan also became a viable political candidate after making a landmark political campaign speech in 1964 on national television supporting the GOP presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater.
During the late 1940s, Reagan and his wife provided the FBI with names of actors within the motion picture industry whom they believed to be communist sympathizers, though he expressed reservations; he said "Do they expect us to constitute ourselves as a little FBI of our own and determine just who is a Commie and who isn't?".[42]Reagan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on the subject as well.[43] A fervent anti-communist, he reaffirmed his commitment to democratic principles, stating, "I never as a citizen want to see our country become urged, by either fear or resentment of this group, that we ever compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or resentment."[43]
The Democrap party left him.
“Reagan LEFT the democrat party in the early 60’s... then became a ‘viable (Republican) candidate in 1964’. The time between ‘early 1960’s and 1964 is NOT that long a time period. Certainly NOT decades.”
You think Reagan ran for President in 1964?!?