| Election Name: | 1872 Tennessee gubernatorial election |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1870 Tennessee gubernatorial election |
| Previous Year: | 1870 |
| Next Election: | 1874 Tennessee gubernatorial election |
| Next Year: | 1874 |
| Election Date: | November 2, 1872 |
| Image1: | File:JCBrown-tn-gov-gen.jpg |
| Nominee1: | John C. Brown |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote1: | 97,700 |
| Percentage1: | 53.74% |
| Governor | |
| Before Election: | John C. Brown |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Election: | John C. Brown |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Nominee2: | Alfred A. Freeman |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Popular Vote2: | 84,089 |
| Percentage2: | 46.26% |
The 1872 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1872, to elect the governor of Tennessee. Incumbent Democratic governor John C. Brown won re-election, defeating Republican candidate Alfred A. Freeman with 53.74% of the vote.[1] [2] [3]
In September 1872, Alfred A. Freeman was nominated as the Republican Party candidate for governor.[4] He spent September and October of that year campaigning and debating the Democratic Party incumbent, former Confederate general John C. Brown. At a debate in Lebanon, Governor Brown blamed the state's growing debt crisis on Republicans, specifically the Brownlow administration. He opposed fixing the debt or funding public schools with tax increases. He blasted the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant as corrupt. In response, Freeman blamed the debt on pre-war Democratic governors, and argued that debts incurred under Brownlow were to rebuild railroads destroyed during the war. He supported a tax to fund public schools, and accused Democrats of stealing the state's school fund when they fled Nashville in early 1862.[5]
On election day, Brown defeated Freeman, 97,700 votes to 84,089 votes.[6]