John Nance „Cactus Jack“ Garner (* 22 November 1868 near Detroit, Texas) has been Vice president of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt since 1933. He's been a member of the House of Representatives since 1903, since 1931 he's its Speaker.
The union leader John L. Lewis described Garner as a
labor-baiting
poker-playing
whiskey-drinking
evil old man
Ahead of the Presidential elections of 1932, Garner tried becoming the candidate for the Democrats. Because of the ongoing Great Depression the party thought it'd be easy to defeat incumbent Herbert Hoover. Garner had no support in his party except among the conservative Democrats from the South, so he made a deal with Roosevelt: He'd support him and become his VP in return. So FDR became the candidate and the President after his landslide victory, and Garner became Vice president. However, he never got warm with FDR's "New Deal" Politics, he tends to the Conservative Coalition of the "New Deal" opponents, he has no say in politics, and he finds that his office wasn't worth more than „a warm bucket of piss“. And he still dreams of becoming POTUS one day. FDR's second term is running out in 1941, it seemed to be time for a change...
On December 18th of 1939, Garner announced his candidacy, but the very first primaries in March 1940 foreshadowed already that FDR would win the race again, and at the End of May, his nomination was practically sure. This time he probably won't make Garner his VP anymore...