Ribbon Portrait

Yellow background with a red white and blue ribbon tied in a bow at the top. In the center is two circular black and white photograph portraits of men. The circles of the portraits are joined in the center. The man on the right has a mustache.

Campaign button for President William McKinley and his running mate Theodore Roosevelt in 1900. After four years in office, McKinley's popularity had risen because of his image as the victorious commander-in-chief of the Spanish-American War (see Foreign Affairs section) and because of the nation's general return to economic prosperity. Hence, he was easily renominated in 1900 as the Republican candidate. The most momentous event at the Philadelphia convention centered on the vice presidential nomination of Governor Theodore Roosevelt of New York. Vice President Garret A. Hobart of New Jersey had died in office, and Roosevelt's candidacy added a popular war hero and reform governor to the ticket.