 The outcome of the 1894 elections made it increasingly likely a Republican would be the next president . At the time , the presidential nominating process started much later than it subsequently would , and McKinley , in quietly organizing his campaign with Hanna 's aid in the early months of 1895 , was alone among the candidates in acting so early . Other potential Republican candidates were former president Harrison , incoming Speaker of the House Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine , Iowa Senator William B. Allison , and several state favorite sons , such as Illinois Senator Shelby Cullom . If former president Harrison entered the race , he would immediately become a major contender , and uncertainty over his status hung over the race in 1895 . At the time , unless there was an incumbent elected Republican president , the nomination was generally not decided until the convention , with state political bosses and delegates exacting a price for their support . A candidate 's efforts to gain the nomination did not begin until shortly before the state delegate conventions in the spring of the election year , where fights over the makeup of the delegation often focused on who would be on it , rather than who delegates would support . McKinley and Hanna decided on a systematic nationwide effort to gain the nomination , what onetime presidential adviser Karl Rove , who penned a book on the 1896 race , called " the first modern primary campaign " . 
