We can play fantasy games forever, but Pat Brown was doing poorly and had already promised not to run again before trying for his doomed third term.
He only won his own primary by 52% and lost to Reagan in a massive, Christine O’Donnell/Rick Santorum type landslide, Kennedy losing in 1960 wouldn’t have changed that.
Reagan owned the Governorship of California in 1966.
Again, you’re talking about the reality as it unfolded, that’s not what I’m debating. I’m postulating what the national climate would’ve been with Nixon as President from 1961-69 and how that would’ve impacted GOP candidates. Had Conservative standard-bearer Joe Shell run in 1962 and beaten Brown, Reagan would not be part of the equation for 1966 (if at all). A Governor Shell would’ve been thrust into a potential Presidential candidacy.