1952 Tennessee gubernatorial election

1952 Tennessee gubernatorial election

← 1950 November 4, 1952 1954 →
 
Nominee Frank G. Clement R. Beecher Witt
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 640,290 166,377
Percentage 79.37% 20.62%

County results
Clement:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%
Witt:      50–60%

Governor before election

Gordon Browning
Democratic

Elected Governor

Frank G. Clement
Democratic

The 1952 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 1952, to elect the next governor of Tennessee. Incumbent Democratic governor, Gordon Browning was defeated in the primary by Frank G. Clement. In the general election, Clement defeated Republican nominee R. Beecher Witt with 79.4% of the vote.

In the primary election, Clement derided Governor Browning as "dishonest, indecent, and immoral,"[1] and criticized the state's purchase of an expensive office building in Nashville. Browning, nearly twice Clement's age, struggled to adapt to the new medium of television.[2] He lost to Clement in the primary, 302,491 votes to 245,166.[3]

  1. ^ Phillip Langsdon, Tennessee: A Political History (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 325-329, 340-350.
  2. ^ Fred Rolater, "Gordon Weaver Browning," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: 12 December 2012.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference google1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).