Each state is allowed to place two statues in the U.S. Capitol depicting significant people from that state's history. California's two statues are of Father Junipero Serra, one of the most important Spanish missionaries in the New World, and Thomas Star King, a Unitarian pastor who is credited with keeping California in the Union leading up to the Civil War.

In 2006, the California General Assembly voted to replace King's statue with one of Ronald Reagan, the only California governor to serve as President of the United States.