Assistant Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock resigned from his office in February 1908 to lead the Taft effort . In April , Taft made a speaking tour , traveling as far west as Omaha before being recalled to go to Panama and straighten out a contested election . At the 1908 Republican National Convention in Chicago in June , there was no serious opposition to him , and he gained a first-ballot victory . Yet Taft did not have things his own way : he had hoped his running mate would be a midwestern progressive like Iowa Senator Jonathan Dolliver , but instead the convention named Congressman James S. Sherman of New York , a conservative . Taft resigned as Secretary of War on June 30 to devote himself full-time to the campaign
1908 Republican National Convention
1908 Republican National Convention
William Howard Taft