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| Turnout | 54.46%  [1] 20.49 pp | ||||||||||||||||
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     Lee: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Dean: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Tie: 40–50% No data | |||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Tennessee |
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 Government |
The 2018 Tennessee gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 2018, to elect the next governor of Tennessee, alongside other state and local elections. Incumbent Republican governor Bill Haslam was term-limited, and is prohibited by the Constitution of Tennessee from seeking a third consecutive term. Republican candidate Bill Lee was elected with 59.6% of the vote, defeating Democratic nominee and former Nashville mayor Karl Dean.
The primary elections took place on August 2, 2018, with Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean winning their respective party nominations.[2]
During the general election, Dean flipped back reliably Democratic Davidson, Haywood, and Shelby Counties, which voted for Republican governor Bill Haslam in 2010.
The results of the election marked the first time since 1982 that a candidate from the incumbent president's party was elected governor of Tennessee. This is also the first time that Republicans won three consecutive gubernatorial elections in the state, and the first time that a Republican was elected to succeed another Republican.
As of 2018, this election had the largest number of candidates (28) in a statewide election in United States history; the previous record was the 2016 United States presidential election in Colorado. This large surge in candidates was mostly due to the Libertarian Party of Tennessee's protest of the state's party affiliation and ballot access laws.[3]
- ^ "Tennessee Voter Turnout in 2018". Tennessee Secretary of State. November 6, 2018. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
- ^ Almukhtar, Sarah (August 2, 2018). "Tennessee Primary Election Results". The New York Times.
- ^ "Tennessee Gubernatorial Election Has Greatest Number of Candidates for a Regularly-Scheduled Statewide Election in U.S. History - Ballot Access News". ballot-access.org. September 8, 2018.