Roosevelt turned to his own man, George B. Cortelyou of New York, the first Secretary of Commerce and Labor. To buttress his hold on the party's nomination, Roosevelt made it clear that anyone opposing Cortelyou would be considered to be opposing the President.[202] The President secured his own nomination, but his preferred vice-presidential running mate, Robert R. Hitt, was not nominated.[203] Senator Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana, a favorite of conservatives, gained the nomination.[201]
While Roosevelt followed the tradition of incumbents in not actively campaigning on the stump, he sought to control the campaign's message through specific instructions to Cortelyou. He also attempted to manage the press's release of White House statements by forming the Ananias Club. Any journalist who repeated a statement made by the president without approval was penalized by restriction of further access.[204]
The Democratic Party's nominee in 1904 was Alton Brooks Parker. Democratic newspapers charged that Republicans were extorting large campaign contributions from corporations, putting ultimate responsibility on Roosevelt, himself.[205] Roosevelt denied corruption while at the same time he ordered Cortelyou to return $100,000 (equivalent to $3 million in 2021) of a campaign contribution from Standard Oil.