We quantified the impact of hypertension on gout incidence in middle-aged white and African American, men and women. ARIC is a prospective population-based cohort recruited between 1987–1989 from 4 US communities. Using a time-dependent Cox Proportional Hazards model, we estimated the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of incident gout by time-varying hypertension and tested for mediation by serum urate level. There were 10,872 participants among whom 45% had hypertension over follow-up; 43% were men and 21% were African-American. Over 9 years, 274 (2.5%) participants developed gout; 1.8% of women and 3.5% of men. The unadjusted HR of incident gout was approximately 3 times (HR=2.87; 95% CI: 2.24, 3.78) greater for those with hypertension. Adjusting for confounders resulted in an attenuated but still significant association between hypertension and gout (HR= 2.00; 95% CI: 1.54, 2.61). Adjustment for serum urate level further attenuated but did not abrogate the association (HR=1.36, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.79). There was no evidence of effect modification by sex (p-value=0.35), race (p-value=0.99), or obesity at baseline (p-value=0.82). Hypertension was independently associated with increased gout risk in middle-aged African American and white adults. Serum urate level may be a partial intermediate on the pathway between hypertension and gout.