The 1873 gubernatorial election in Wisconsin was held on November 4, 1873. Democratic Party candidate William Robert Taylor was elected with 55% of the vote, defeating incumbent Republican Governor Cadwallader C. Washburn. Taylor was the first Democrat elected Governor of Wisconsin since William A. Barstow in 1853. He was nominated as the consensus candidate of the "Reform Party,"—a coalition of Democrats, Liberal Republicans, and Grangers, on a platform of political and economy reform.