| Election Name: | 1857 Tennessee gubernatorial election |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1855 Tennessee gubernatorial election |
| Previous Year: | 1855 |
| Next Election: | 1859 Tennessee gubernatorial election |
| Next Year: | 1859 |
| Election Date: | August 6, 1857 |
| Image1: | File:Isham-harris-by-brady.jpg |
| Nominee1: | Isham G. Harris |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote1: | 71,178 |
| Percentage1: | 54.34% |
| Governor | |
| Before Election: | Andrew Johnson |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Isham G. Harris |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Nominee2: | Robert H. Hatton |
| Popular Vote2: | 59,807 |
| Percentage2: | 45.66% |
| Party2: | Know Nothing |
The 1857 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on August 6, 1857, to elect the next governor of Tennessee. Incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Johnson, was seriously injured in a train accident and was unable to run for re-election.[1] Democrat Robert H. Hatton was nominated as his replacement. In the general election, Hatton ran for a full term and defeated Know Nothing candidate Robert H. Hatton with 54.34% of the vote.[2]
Harris's 11,000 vote victory was relatively large, considering his predecessor, Johnson, had won by just over 2,000 votes in both 1853 and 1855.[3]
Harris's victory was not only the death knell for the state's Know Nothings,[4] who had briefly risen to prominence following the collapse of the national Whig Party, but also represented a shift in Tennessee politics toward the Democratic Party. During the previous two decades, Whigs and Democrats had been evenly matched statewide, with Whigs controlling East Tennessee, Democrats controlling Middle Tennessee, and the two parties evenly split in West Tennessee. The nationwide debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott case pushed the issue of slavery to the forefront in the mid-1850s, and the balance in West Tennessee was tipped in favor of the Democrats.[5]