Appointed Chief Justice James Gilfillan did not run for another term.
Ripley was an attorney from Brownsville and endorsed by the Republican Party. Ripley resigned in March 1874 due to ill health. Governor Cushman Davis appointed Associate Justice Samuel McMillan to fill the vacancy.
Flandrau was an attorney from St. Paul, former territorial Representative (HD 10, 1856-1857), appointed judge on the Minnesota Territorial Supreme Court (1857-1858), and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1858-1864). He was endorsed by the Democrats.
Hamlin was an attorney, the first Mayor of St. Cloud, former Judge of the Fourth District Court (1858), Democratic nominee for Governor in 1861, candidate for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1864 and 1871. Hamlin was nominated by the Temperance Party. The Temperance Party was founded in 1868 and held its first convention in St. Paul on October 6, 1869. It would later be known as the Prohibition Party in the state.