Pete McCloskey, Republican Who Tried to Unseat Nixon, Is Dead at 96

[SouthBayDem]

7. He had Shirley Temple as a primary challenger?

From Wikipedia:

Temple became active in the California Republican Party. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully in a special election in California's 11th congressional district after eight-term Republican J. Arthur Younger died of leukemia.[68][69] She ran in the open primary as a conservative Republican and came in second with 34,521 votes (22.44%), behind Republican law school professor Pete McCloskey, who placed first in the primary with 52,882 votes (34.37%) and advanced to the general election with Democrat Roy A. Archibald, who finished fourth with 15,069 votes (9.79%), but advanced as the highest-placed Democratic candidate. In the general election, McCloskey was elected with 63,850 votes (57.2%) to Archibald's 43,759 votes (39.2%). Temple received 3,938 votes (3.53%) as an independent write-in.[70][71]

Temple wasn't the first entertainment figure in California politics at the time; there were also Governor Ronald Reagan and Senator George Murphy (both Republicans).