In 1947, Reagan became president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), a union that represents film performers. He was elected to five consecutive terms, serving until 1952. During that time, which was a period of strong anti-Communist feeling in the United States, Reagan worked to remove suspected Communists from the movie industry. In 1949 and 1950, he served as chairman of the Motion Picture Industry Council, a public relations organization devoted to improving the public image of the film business. Reagan served a sixth term as president of SAG in 1959 and 1960. During that period, he led a long and finally successful strike against the movie studios. The strike won payments to the actors for sales of their old films to television. Reagan had long taken an active interest in politics. At first, he held liberal views and belonged to the Democratic Party. In the 1948 presidential election, he campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. He campaigned as a Democratic supporter of several Republican candidates, including presidential nominees Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and Richard M. Nixon in 1960. In 1962, Reagan became a Republican. Reagan first gained nationwide political attention during the 1964 presidential campaign, when he made a stirring TV speech on behalf of the Republican candidate, Barry M. Goldwater. In the speech, Reagan attacked high taxes, wasteful government spending, the growth of government agencies, the rising crime rate, and soaring welfare costs. The speech drew record numbers of contributions for the Goldwater campaign. Reagan first won public office in 1966, when he was elected governor of California. He defeated the state's Democratic governor, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, by a landslide. Reagan was reelected governor of California in 1970 and served until 1975. As governor, he made major policy decisions himself but relied on others to handle the details. In 1968, Reagan had campaigned briefly for the Republican presidential nomination but did not win. In 1976, he tried again. He attracted much support among conservatives and won many delegates in the South and West. In an attempt to appeal to more liberal and Eastern delegates, he announced that his choice for vice president would be Senator Richard S. Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Schweiker was known for his liberal Senate record. But Reagan lost the nomination to President Gerald R. Ford by a narrow margin. Reagan soon began to plan his campaign for the 1980 nomination. By November 1979, when he announced his candidacy, he had a huge lead in the polls over his Republican rivals. In February 1980, Reagan won the year's first presidential primary election in New Hampshire. His popularity continued to grow during the spring. By the end of May, Reagan had won 20 of the 24 primaries so far held, and the other Republican candidates had withdrawn from the race. In July 1980, Reagan easily won the nomination for president on the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Detroit. At his request, Bush was nominated for vice president. The Democrats renominated President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter F. Mondale. John B. Anderson ran as an Independent. In the election, Reagan defeated Carter and Anderson by a wide margin. He received about 44 million popular votes to about 35 million popular votes for Carter and about 51/2 million for Anderson. Reagan carried 44 states for a total of 489 electoral votes, while Carter carried only 6 states and the District of Columbia for 49 electoral votes.