McKinley Roosevelt

Colorized photograph showing the head and shoulders of two men in suits on a gold background

Pictured on this button from 1900 are U.S President William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. McKinley had originally been elected in 1896 with Garret Hobart as vice president. Yet Hobart died in 1899, and the Republican national convention nominated the Governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt, as McKinley's running mate in 1900. Roosevelt had previously served as McKinley's assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy. As in the 1896 election, McKinley faced William Jennings Bryan. McKinley's campaign promoted the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War and economic prosperity in the country. Democrats painted McKinley as beholden to big business. McKinley won by a margin of 51.6% to 45.5% and even took Bryan's home state of Nebraska.

On September 6, 1901, while in a receiving line at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley died of his wounds on September 14. Vice President Roosevelt took the oath of office in Buffalo and remained as U.S. President until 1909.