Culbert Levy Olson was introduced to politics at an early age – his mother, Delilah King Olson, was a suffragette and the first female elected official in Utah. He was the first Democrat elected to the office of Governor of California in the 20th century and served in that role from 1939 - 1943. Olson was a loyal supporter of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California (EPIC). He hoped to implement similar reforms, but he was only able to make some modest reforms, primarily to the state’s penal system and to the mental health system. Making good on one of his campaign promises, Olson pardoned Thomas Mooney, who was serving a life sentence for his alleged role in the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing.