McKinley rose to prominence within the Republican Party as a congressman closely associated with protective tariffs. He earned national notoriety in the 1880s and 1890s for his nationwide campaigning, and in 1891 he won election as Governor of Ohio. In the lead-up to the 1896 election, McKinley and his manager, Cleveland businessman Mark Hanna, quietly built up support for a presidential bid. When rivals Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed and Senator William B. Allison sent agents outside their states to organize support for their candidacies, they found that McKinley agents had preceded them. By the time the 1896 Republican National Convention began in St. Louis in June, McKinley had an ample majority of delegates, and he won the nomination on the first ballot of the convention. Hanna selected Republican National Committee vice chairman Garret Hobart of New Jersey for vice president.
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