Republicans Hold Power: McKinley Wins Second Term

President William McKinley won a decisive re-election over William Jennings Bryan, bringing New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt onto the ticket as Vice President. McKinley's assassination less than a year later would thrust Roosevelt into the presidency and launch the Progressive Era that reshaped American governance. The 1900 election was a rematch of the 1896 contest, with McKinley once again defeating Bryan, this time by an even wider margin. McKinley carried 292 electoral votes to Bryan's 155, running on a platform of prosperity, the gold standard, and American expansionism following the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt was placed on the ticket partly because New York Republican boss Thomas Platt wanted him out of the governor's office, where his reform agenda was threatening the state party machine. Roosevelt's energy and popularity as a war hero from the charge up San Juan Hill made him an attractive running mate, though McKinley's adviser Mark Hanna warned, "Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between this madman and the White House?" Hanna's fear proved prophetic. On September 6, 1901, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later, and Roosevelt became president at 42, the youngest in American history. Roosevelt immediately began implementing the progressive domestic agenda that McKinley had resisted, including antitrust enforcement, conservation, and labor reform. The accidental presidency launched a transformation of American government that expanded federal regulatory power and presidential authority.