1864 Kansas gubernatorial election

{{short description|none}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}

{{Infobox election

| election_name = 1864 Kansas gubernatorial election

| country = Kansas

| type = Presidential

| ongoing = no

| previous_election = 1862 Kansas gubernatorial election

| previous_year = 1862

| next_election = 1866 Kansas gubernatorial election

| next_year = 1866

| election_date = November 8, 1864

| image1 = 125px

| nominee1 = Samuel J. Crawford

| party1 = Republican Party (United States)

| popular_vote1 = 13,387

| percentage1 = 61.31%

| image2 = 125px

| nominee2 = Solon O. Thacher

| party2 = Union

| color2 = ff9955

| popular_vote2 = 8,448

| percentage2 = 38.69%

| map_image = 1864 Kansas gubernatorial election results map by county.svg

| map_size =

| map_caption = County results
Crawford: {{legend0|#e27f7f|50–60%}} {{legend0|#d75d5d|60–70%}} {{legend0|#d72f30|70–80%}} {{legend0|#c21b18|80–90%}}
Thacher: {{legend0|#FF9955|50–60%}} {{legend0|#FF6600|60–70%}} {{legend0|#D45500|>90%}}
{{legend0|#808080|No Data}}

| title = Governor

| before_election = Thomas Carney

| before_party = Republican Party (United States)

| after_election = Samuel J. Crawford

| after_party = Republican Party (United States)

}}

{{ElectionsKS}}

A gubernatorial election was held in Kansas on November 8, 1864. The Republican colonel of the 2nd Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment Samuel J. Crawford defeated the Union judge of the U.S. district court for the District of Kansas Solon O. Thacher.{{cite book |last1=Glashan |first1=Roy R. |title=American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775–1978 |date=1979 |publisher=Meckler Books |location=Westport, CT |pages=100–1 |url=https://archive.org/details/americangovernor0000glas/mode/2up}}

The Union Party was organized in 1862 by opponents of U.S. Senator Jim Lane to contest the 1862 state elections.{{cite book |editor-last1=Ponce |editor-first1=Pearl T. |title=Kansas's War: The Civil War in Documents |date=2011 |publisher=Ohio University Press |location=Athens |pages=163–64 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Kansas_s_War/lu9HBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0}} In 1864 the party was divided between supporters of Abraham Lincoln, George B. McClellan, and John C. Fremont in the upcoming presidential election. When the Union State Convention convened at Topeka on September 13, Democratic and Anti-Lane Republicans met separately to nominate presidential tickets in support of McClellan and Lincoln, respectively; the two groups then reconvened in a joint session and nominated a single statewide ticket with Thacher as the gubernatorial candidate.{{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Samuel J. |title=Kansas in the Sixties |date=1911 |publisher=A. C. McClurg & Co. |location=Chicago |page=201 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Kansas_in_the_Sixties/Ge1BAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0}} Some Radical Republicans in the Union Party were dissatisfied with Lincoln and initially refused to support the Union presidential ticket; these individuals appointed delegates to attend the national convention of the Radical Democratic Party in Cincinnati in hopes of replacing Lincoln with a more acceptable candidate.Ponce, 164.