1870 Tennessee gubernatorial election

The 1870 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1870, to elect the next governor of Tennessee. Incumbent Republican Governor Dewitt Clinton Senter did not seek re-election. Democratic candidate and former Confederate Army officer John C. Brown defeated Republican candidate and former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives William H. Wisener with 65.55% of the vote.

Background
Although John C. Brown had been a Whig before the Civil War, Brown joined the Democratic Party after the war, and was nominated as the party's candidate for governor in 1870. Since the 1870 Constitution of Tennessee restored voting rights to ex-Confederates, Brown easily defeated his Republican opponent, William H. Wisener of Shelbyville, by a 78,979 to 41,500 vote.