1936 Roosevelt-Garner Campaign Souvenir Coin

John Nance Garner of Uvalde, known as "Cactus Jack," was one of the most colorful Texas politicians of the 20th century. As a young lawyer, he first stood for office in 1893 in a race for county judge of Uvalde County. He defeated his opponent, a rancher's daughter named Mariette Rheiner, and married her two years later. Garner was known for his conservative politics as well as his pet causes such as campaigning to make the prickly pear the state flower of Texas (the bluebonnet won).

Garner was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1903, where he eventually became Democratic leader, then Speaker. He ran for president in 1932 and lost the Democratic nomination to Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, who selected Garner as his running mate. The pair won handily. This promotional copper coin is from their reelection campaign in 1936, and features FDR's image superimposed over John Garner's image. Engraved on the front are the words "Lucky Heads, You Win."

Garner was famously unhappy as vice-president, calling the office "not worth a bucket of warm spit." When Roosevelt decided to run for a third term in 1940, Garner unsuccessfully opposed him for the Democratic nomination. The following year, he retired to his ranch in Uvalde, where he died in 1967 at the age of 98.