1854 Massachusetts gubernatorial election

1854 Massachusetts gubernatorial election

← 1853 November 15, 1854 (1854-11-15) 1855 →
 
Nominee Henry J. Gardner Emory Washburn Henry W. Bishop
Party Know Nothing Whig Democratic
Popular vote 81,503 27,279 13,742
Percentage 62.58% 20.94% 10.55%

County results
Gardner:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%
Washburn:      40–50%

Governor before election

Emory Washburn
Whig

Elected Governor

Henry J. Gardner
Know Nothing

The 1854 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 15. American Party candidate Henry J. Gardner was elected to his first term as governor, defeating incumbent Whig governor Emory Washburn.

Future senator and vice president of the United States Henry Wilson also ran as a candidate for the new Massachusetts Republican Party. This marks the first campaign in which the new party participated, following its founding on Worcester Common in September.

The election was also the first after the 1853 legislature repealed the secret ballot law passed a few years earlier, returning the state to public balloting.[1]

  1. ^ Darling, Arthur B. (1925). Political Changes in Massachusetts, 1824–1848. Yale University Press. p. 171.