His reluctance to identify himself as a Whig nearly cost him the party's presidential nomination, but Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and other supporters finally convinced Taylor to declare himself a Whig.[91] Though Clay retained a strong following among the Whigs, Whig leaders like William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln were eager to support a war hero who could replicate the success of the party's only other successful presidential candidate, William Henry Harrison.[92]
At the 1848 Whig National Convention, Taylor defeated Clay and Winfield Scott for the presidential nomination. For its vice-presidential nominee the convention chose Millard Fillmore, a prominent New York Whig who had chaired the House Ways and Means Committee and been a contender for the vice-presidential nominee in the 1844 election. Fillmore's selection was largely an attempt at reconciliation with northern Whigs, who were furious at the nomination of a slave-owning southerner; no faction of the party was satisfied with the final ticket.