Election 1872 Results
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1872 governor election results by state and county
Republicans won 21 of 23 governorships alongside Ulysses S. Grant's re-election, though Indiana went Democratic and New Hampshire was decided by a tenth of a point.
23 governor races were held in 1872. Democrats won 3 and Republicans 19, and 1 went to neither party.
The closest were Indiana (D+0.3), North Carolina (R+1.0) and Connecticut (R+2.2). 8 governorships changed party: Alabama to the Republicans, Georgia to the Democrats, Indiana to the Democrats, Missouri to the Democrats, New Hampshire to the Republicans, New York to the Republicans, Tennessee to the Republicans and West Virginia to the third party.
Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.
About the 1872 governor elections
Grant won a second term in 1872 over Horace Greeley, who ran as the nominee of the Liberal Republicans and the Democrats. Republicans dominated the governor races too, winning 21 of the 23 on the ballot, and took back New York, where John A. Dix won, and Alabama. Several contests were extremely close. Ezekiel A. Straw won New Hampshire by about 0.1 points over James A. Weston. In Indiana, Democrat Thomas A. Hendricks won by 0.3 points, one of the few Democratic gains of the year. Tod R. Caldwell held North Carolina for the Republicans by about a point over Augustus S. Merrimon. The South produced two disputed results. In Arkansas, Elisha Baxter beat Joseph Brooks by about 3 points in a contest between rival factions that ended in the armed Brooks-Baxter War of 1874. In Louisiana, William Pitt Kellogg and John McEnery both claimed victory, and federal support kept Kellogg in office. John F. Hartranft won Pennsylvania by about 5 points, and Ossian B. Hart was elected in Florida.
Every race
| State | Democrat | Votes | Republican | Votes | Others | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama flip | Thomas H. Herndon | 81,371 (47.5%) | David P. Lewis | 89,868 (52.5%) | R+5.0 | |
| Arkansas | none | Elisha Baxter | 41,775 (51.8%) | Joseph Brooks (Liberal Republican) 38,909 (48.2%) |
R+51.8 | |
| Connecticut | Richard Dudley Hubbard | 44,562 (47.9%) | Marshall Jewell | 46,563 (50.0%) | 1,948 | R+2.2 |
| Florida | none | Ossian B. Hart | 17,603 (52.4%) | William D. Bloxham (Liberal Republican) 16,004 (47.6%) |
R+52.4 | |
| Georgia flip | James Milton Smith | 104,256 (69.5%) | Dawson A. Walker | 45,812 (30.5%) | D+39.0 | |
| Illinois | none | Richard J. Oglesby | 237,774 (54.4%) | Gustavus Koerner (Liberal Republican) 197,084 (45.1%) |
R+54.4 | |
| Indiana flip | Thomas Andrews Hendricks | 189,424 (50.1%) | Thomas Mcclelland Browne | 188,276 (49.8%) | 209 | D+0.3 |
| Kansas | none | Thomas A. Osborn | 66,715 (65.8%) | Thaddeus H. Walker (Liberal Republican) 34,698 (34.2%) |
R+65.8 | |
| Louisiana | John McEnery | 55,249 (43.1%) | William Pitt Kellogg | 72,890 (56.9%) | R+13.8 | |
| Maine | Charles P. Kimball | 55,343 (43.5%) | Sidney Perham | 71,883 (56.5%) | 23 | R+13.0 |
| Massachusetts | none | William B. Washburn | 133,900 (69.1%) | Francis W. Bird (Liberal Republican) 59,626 (30.8%) |
R+69.1 | |
| Michigan | none | John J. Bagley | 137,606 (61.8%) | Austin Blair (Liberal Republican) 80,961 (36.4%) |
R+61.8 | |
| Missouri flip | Silas Woodson | 156,767 (56.3%) | John B. Henderson | 121,889 (43.7%) | D+12.5 | |
| Nebraska | H. C. Lett | 11,199 (40.5%) | Robert W. Furnas | 16,458 (59.5%) | R+19.0 | |
| New Hampshire flip | James A. Weston | 36,584 (48.0%) | Ezekiel A. Straw | 38,751 (50.8%) | 896 | R+2.8 |
| New York flip | Francis Kernan | 392,350 (46.8%) | John Adams Dix | 445,801 (53.2%) | R+6.4 | |
| North Carolina | Augustus S. Merrimon | 96,731 (49.5%) | Tod R. Caldwell | 98,630 (50.5%) | R+1.0 | |
| Pennsylvania | Charles R. Buckalew | 317,823 (47.3%) | John Frederick Hartranft | 353,387 (52.5%) | 1,278 | R+5.3 |
| Rhode Island | Olney Arnold | 8,308 (46.8%) | Seth Padelford | 9,463 (53.2%) | R+6.5 | |
| South Carolina | none | Franklin J. Moses Jr. | 69,838 (65.4%) | Reuben Tomlinson (Independent Republican) 36,533 (34.2%) |
R+65.4 | |
| Tennessee flip | none | A. A. Freeman | 83,707 (100.0%) | R+100.0 | ||
| Vermont | Abraham B. Gardner | 16,613 (28.4%) | Julius Converse | 41,946 (71.6%) | 14 | R+43.3 |
| West Virginia flip | Johnson N. Camden | 40,305 (48.4%) | none | John J. Jacob (People's Independent) 42,888 (51.6%) |
Ind. +3.1 |
Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Margins are Democrat minus Republican, of all votes. Certified results, from the states' own archives, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Heideman (2026) and Algara & Amlani (2021). By county: "As they were" draws each county as it stood on election day; "Today's" shares the old votes among today's counties by area, so its county detail is an estimate. County boundaries: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5). How these results were checked.