Video: ‘Rocky Mountain PBS: Denver Democratic Convention 1908-2008’

(Friday, July 10, 1908, 3:40 a.m. local time) — Former Representative William J. Bryan
of Nebraska was nominated for President of the United States today at the 1908 Democratic National Convention meeting at Denver Auditorium Arena in Denver, Colorado.

Bryan, the party’s presidential nominee in 1896 and 1900 (handily defeated by Republican William McKinley in both general elections), was unanimously declared the nominee after handily winning the first ballot’s roll call over former Senator George Gray of Delaware.

About 13 hours later, former state Senator John W. Kern of Indiana was unanimously declared the candidate for vice-president without a formal ballot after the names of Charles A. Towne, Archibald McNeil and Clark Howell were withdrawn from consideration.

The Bryan-Kern ticket would oppose the Republican ticket of William Taft and James Sherman (nominated in June 1908) in the United States presidential election, 1908.