Career
Gann was born in Clark County, Arkansas and moved to California in 1935. He was the Republican candidate for United States Senator from California in 1980, but was defeated by the incumbent Democrat, Alan Cranston. Gann died in 1989 in Sacramento at the age of 77, of pneumonia as a complication of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. He had contracted Human Immunodeficiency Virus from a blood transfusion and first developed Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome in 1987.
Gann devoted the last years of his life to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome treatment advocacy.
California"s "Paul Gann Blood Safety Acting" (California Health and Safety Code Section 1645(b)) took effect in 1990, mandating that physicians discuss the risks of blood transfusion with their patients.