McKinley’s first vice president was Garret Augustus Hobart, a New Jersey politician who had served in both branches of the state congress but had failed in his bid for the United States Senate. Hobart died in office and the position was not filled for the remainder of McKinley’s first term.

His second vice president was a promising politician from New York named Theodore Roosevelt. A striking figure in personality and performance, Roosevelt assumed the presidency after McKinley’s assassination.