Barry Goldwater was an Arizona senator whose 1964 presidential campaign transformed American conservatism, laying the groundwork for Reagan's victory sixteen years later. A Phoenix department store heir, Goldwater entered politics as a World War II veteran, winning election to the Senate in 1952.
Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative (1960) became the movement's bible, advocating limited government, states' rights, and aggressive anti-communism. His 1964 presidential campaign—declaring 'extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice'—terrified moderates and lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson.
Yet the Goldwater campaign built organizational infrastructure and identified themes that would triumph with Reagan. Goldwater himself became more libertarian in later years, supporting abortion rights, gay rights, and criticizing the Religious Right as dangerously theocratic. He returned to the Senate, championed Native American rights, and died in 1998 as a conservative icon who had also become something of a maverick.