Roosevelt took the office in September 1901 following the assassination of his predecessor , William McKinley . After the February 1904 death of McKinley 's ally , Senator Mark Hanna , Roosevelt faced little opposition at the 1904 Republican National Convention . The conservative Bourbon Democrat allies of former President Grover Cleveland temporarily regained control of the Democratic Party from the followers of William Jennings Bryan , and the 1904 Democratic National Convention nominated Alton B. Parker , Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals . Parker triumphed on the second ballot of the convention , defeating newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst
1904 Republican National Convention
1904 Republican National Convention
1904 United States presidential election