As the sitting Governor of New York and the newly minted Republican nominee for U.S. Vice President, Roosevelt attended the state convention to hand off the state's leadership to Odell, who had been his close political ally and state party chairman. 

On September 5, 1900, Roosevelt took the stage at Convention Hall in Saratoga Springs and delivered a forceful speech endorsing Odell and defending the achievements of his own gubernatorial administration. Earlier that summer at the National Convention, Roosevelt had even attempted to push Odell as William McKinley's vice-presidential running mate before party bosses ultimately forced Roosevelt himself onto the nation