1978Final results
1978 election for Tennessee Governor
Governor · Tennessee
Lamar Alexander (R) won with 55.8% of the vote, defeating Jake Butcher (D) by 11.7 points.
Lamar AlexanderRepublican · winner
55.8%661,959
Jake ButcherDemocrat
44.2%523,495
1,185,454 votes
Source: Algara, Carlos; Amlani, Sharif (Harvard Dataverse)Updated Oct 5, 2026, 12:23 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1978
Races before and after
Source: Algara, Carlos; Amlani, Sharif (Harvard Dataverse)Updated Oct 5, 2026, 12:23 AM ET