2018 Tennessee gubernatorial election
The 2018 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018. Incumbent Republican Governor Bill Haslam was term-limited and could not run again. Republican Bill Lee defeated Democrat Karl Dean, winning about 59.6% of the vote to Dean’s 38.6%.
Primary elections were on August 2, 2018, with Lee and Dean winning their party nominations. Lee carried seven of Tennessee’s nine congressional districts, while Dean won Davidson, Haywood, and Shelby counties—counties that voted for Haslam in 2014. Lee’s victory made him the first Republican to succeed another Republican as Tennessee governor since 1982, and it gave Republicans three consecutive gubernatorial wins in the state. Lee was sworn in on January 19, 2019.
This election had a unusually large field, with 28 candidates—the most ever in a statewide race in U.S. history at the time—largely due to Libertarian Party concerns about ballot access laws. Turnout was about 54.5%.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 19:12 (CET).