Harlan Mathews (January 17, 1927 – May 9, 2014) was an American politician who was an appointed interim Democratic United States Senator from Tennessee from 1993 to 1994.

In January 1971, Mathews left the cabinet and entered the private sector for two years, working for Amcon International in Memphis.

In 1974, Mathews was elected state treasurer by the Tennessee General Assembly after his predecessor, Tom Wiseman, resigned to run for governor.

The Tennessee General Assembly elected Mathews to his first full two-year term as treasurer in 1975,[5] where he served until January 1987, when he became deputy to Governor Ned R. McWherter.

[6] In mid-1993, Mathews expressed a desire to run in November 1994 for election to the remainder of Gore's senate term.