how to write the best campaign speech

• Digital Advocacy and Political Campaign Platform.
• Nonprofits Courses
• Political Campaigns
• Issue-Base Advocacy
• Online Petitions
• Campaign Candidates
• Becoming a Donor
• Online Fundraising
• Campaign Management
• Website Design/Apps
• Volunteer Recruitment
• Political Advertising
• Events Planning
• Social Media Marketing
• PR/Media Outreach
• Email Marketing
• Political Consulting
• Text Messaging
• Phone Banking
• How It Works
• Sell Products
• Campaign Course
• Campaign Store
• Campaign Events
• Campaign News
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Campaign Guidelines
• Campaign Laws
• Free Resources
• Photo Gallery
• YouTube Videos
• Press Releases
• Testimonials

• By PolitiVos
• Campaign Guidelines , Latest News , Politics Today

How to Write Election Campaign Speech in 10 Steps

This guide provides essential tips on how to write election campaign speech that will resonate with your audience. Writing an election campaign speech is a critical and complex process that requires careful planning, research, and effective communication skills. A campaign speech can make or break a candidate’s chances of success in an election, and thus it must be crafted with the utmost attention to detail and relevance.

A well-crafted speech can help a candidate to connect with voters, build trust, and win support for their candidacy. However, writing a compelling speech that resonates with the audience can be a daunting task. To write an effective election campaign speech, one needs to understand their audience, have a clear campaign message, and convey that message with passion and conviction.

In this process, it is important to keep in mind the tone and style of the speech, the audience’s values and beliefs, and the specific goals of the campaign. Here are useful tips and strategies to help candidates write a successful election campaign speech. Contact us now to help you conduct a thorough research and create an effective political campaign speech that will convey your values and policies of the political party or candidate and resonate with the audience and stakeholders.

Step 1: Define your audience

Before you start writing your campaign speech, you must first define your audience. Who are you speaking to? What are their concerns, hopes, and aspirations? What are the issues that matter to them? By understanding your audience, you can tailor your speech to their needs and concerns and connect with them on a more personal level.

Step 2: Craft a powerful opening

The opening of your speech is crucial, as it sets the tone and captures the attention of your audience. Start with a strong and compelling statement that immediately grabs their attention. You could use a statistic, a quote, or a personal story to draw them in and make them want to listen to what you have to say.

Don’t Miss:  How to Develop Campaign Manifesto in 8 Steps

Step 3: focus on your message.

Your campaign speech must have a clear and concise message that reflects your values, beliefs, and vision for the future. Focus on the issues that matter to your audience and demonstrate how your policies and plan of actions will address their concerns. Be specific and provide examples of how you will make a difference if elected as a president, house of representative, senator, governor or even state assembly member.

Step 4: Use persuasive language

The language you use in your speech is essential in persuading your audience to vote for you. Use persuasive language that appeals to their emotions, values, and aspirations. Use simple and easy-to-understand language that everyone can relate to. Avoid using jargon, technical terms, or complex sentences that may confuse or alienate your audience.

Step 5: Be authentic and genuine

Authenticity and genuineness are crucial when delivering a campaign speech. You must be honest and sincere in your message and connect with your audience on a personal level. Share your personal experiences, past records, values, and beliefs that demonstrate your authenticity and inspire trust and confidence in your leadership.

Step 6: Use humor and storytelling

Humor and storytelling are excellent tools for engaging your audience and keeping their attention. Use anecdotes, personal stories, or jokes to add some lightness and humor to your speech. However, be careful not to offend or belittle anyone, as this could harm your credibility and reputation.

You May Like:  Impacts of Personality Politics in Nigeria

Step 7: use rhetorical devices.

Rhetorical devices, such as repetition, alliteration, and metaphors, can make your speech more memorable and impactful. Use these devices strategically to emphasize your message and create a lasting impression on your audience.

Step 8: Address your opponent’s weaknesses

When writing a campaign speech, it’s essential to address your opponent’s weaknesses without attacking or insulting them. Highlight your opponent’s weaknesses, and demonstrate how your policies and plans are superior to theirs. However, be respectful and avoid personal attacks or mudslinging, as this could harm your reputation and credibility.

Step 9: End with a call to action

The conclusion of your campaign speech should inspire your audience to take action and vote for you. End your political campaign speech with a powerful call to action that encourages people to support your campaign, volunteer, or donate to your cause. Provide specific instructions on how they can get involved in your movement and make a difference.

Read:  The Roles of the Media in Nigerian Elections

Step 10: practice and rehearse.

Finally, practice your speech as much as possible before delivering it to your audience. Rehearse in front of a mirror, record yourself, or practice in front of a friend or family member. This will help you identify areas that need improvement, work on your delivery skills, and build your confidence.

Wrapping up: How to Write Election Campaign Speech

In conclusion, writing an election campaign speech can be a challenging task, but with the right approach and preparation, anyone can deliver a compelling and impactful speech. The first step is to understand the audience and their needs and concerns. This helps to craft a message that resonates with them and addresses their issues.

It is also important to have a clear and concise structure for the speech, with a powerful opening that captures the audience’s attention, a strong middle that reinforces the main points, and a memorable closing that leaves a lasting impression.

Related:  How To Hire A Political Campaign Team

To make the speech more persuasive, using rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and emotional appeal can be effective. However, it is important to ensure that the speech is based on accurate and verifiable facts and not just rhetoric. Rehearsing the speech several times before the actual delivery can help to boost confidence and ensure a smooth delivery.

It is also important to get feedback from others and make necessary adjustments to the speech based on their feedback. By following these tips and putting in the necessary effort and practice, you can write and deliver a winning campaign speech.

Related posts:

Leave A Comment

Signup to enjoy access.

Forgot Password

Support a progressive cause or campaign.

By creating an account, you agree to our Terms and Conditions

Political Speech Writing: How Candidates Can Craft Compelling Messages

Understanding the Power of Political Speeches

Political speeches play a pivotal role in shaping the course of nations and can shape the trajectory of societies. Effective speech writing for elections allows leaders to communicate their vision, values, and policy objectives to the public. These speeches serve as a means of persuasion, providing a platform for leaders to connect with their constituents emotionally. Through carefully tailoring speeches, a political oratory has the potential to inspire, mobilize, and unite people around common goals and ideals.

One key aspect of political speeches is their ability to inform and educate the public. In a democratic society, an informed citizenry is essential for making sound election decisions and understanding government policy implications. A well-done political oratory allows leaders to clarify their positions and present evidence and data. Speechwriting for elections often requires addressing complex issues and helping citizens make informed choices about how they want the country to move. Moreover, political speeches serve as a channel for transparency and accountability.

Beyond their informational role, a well-crafted political oratory fosters unity and social cohesion by containing messages of hope, unity and inclusivity. They can transcend political divides and unite people, transcending differences of opinion and background. In times of crisis or uncertainty, campaign speeches provide reassurance and a sense of purpose. Furthermore, campaign speeches help a nation navigate challenges and emerge stronger.

Well-crafted campaign speeches can be transformative in elections by serving as a dynamic tool for candidates to connect with voters, sway public opinion and ultimately change the outcome of an election. When a candidate speaks passionately about issues that resonate with your audience, it creates a sense of trust and authenticity by tapping into the electorate's hopes, fears, and aspirations.

Speechwriting for elections helps to clarify a candidate's policy positions and goals, providing voters with a clearer understanding of what they stand for, allowing them to set themselves apart from their opponents and creating a sense of confidence in their leadership. A well-crafted political speech can sway undecided voters to the candidate's side.

Rousing persuasive communication can galvanize volunteers and grassroots activists , encouraging them to work harder for the candidate, leading to a higher voter turnout among the candidate's base.

Steps to Effective Political Speechwriting

Here are five tips for crafting an effective political speech:

#1: Make time for research.

Digging deep to find relevant information is crucial when writing a political speech because it adds depth and credibility to the discourse. Great research also ensures that the political speech addresses the complexities of voters' concerns. A speechwriter can write informative and persuasive communication by seeking out comprehensive data.

#2: Consider your audience.

Analyzing a target audience is essential for understanding their demographics, values, beliefs, and concerns. It allows speechwriters to tailor their message to resonate with their intended listeners' specific needs and interests. This analysis enables speechwriters to speak directly to the heart of the issues that matter most to the target audience. It also helps avoid potential pitfalls, such as using language or framing that might alienate or offend specific target audience segments.

#3: Draw on the elements of storytelling.

Storytelling in politics is essential for political speechwriters because it helps engage and persuade the audience effectively. Furthermore, storytelling in politics captures the audience's attention by connecting them emotionally with the message. The right message provides a relatable and human dimension to the content. Furthermore, storytelling in politics helps create a cohesive speech that flows seamlessly, ensuring listeners understand and retain key points. Whether it is rallying support for a candidate, advocating for a policy change, or fostering a sense of unity, a well-crafted narrative can convey a compelling vision for the future and ignite a sense of purpose among the audience.

Free AI tools for your campaign

#4: Set the right tone.

A campaign speech must set the right mood because the emotional tone and atmosphere it creates can significantly impact how the audience receives and responds to the message. By establishing a positive and receptive attitude, the audience is more likely to be engaged and attentive to the speaker's message, which can inspire hope, rally support, and forge meaningful connections. Crafting a political speech that is positive and relatable makes the audience more receptive to the speaker's arguments, so it is a vital political communication strategy. A speech promoting a mood of unity helps to bridge divides, bringing people together.

#5: Edit and practice ahead of time.

Editing and rehearsing a political speech is essential because it ensures the message is clear, concise and free from ambiguity. A well-edited speech enhances the speaker's credibility by demonstrating that the candidate has thoroughly researched and prepared their remarks. Therefore, giving speeches can be a key political communication strategy.

Practicing a speech allows the speaker to fine-tune their delivery and tone to maintain the audience's engagement. Furthermore, practice enables the speaker to reinforce the critical points of the speech, ensuring that they communicate central ideas in an easily memorable way.

Examples of Memorable Political Speeches

Let's turn our attention to some political speechwriting examples. These political speechwriting examples can serve as a powerful guide for candidates.

#1: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Consider Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, as it is one of American history's most impactful political speeches. Presented during the Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the speech was concise, lasting just over two minutes, but its impact was profound. Lincoln eloquently emphasized the principles of equality and liberty and redefined the purpose of the American government as a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." This speech solidified the United States' commitment to democracy and freedom. It also marked a turning point in the Civil War, as it galvanized public sentiment and reinvigorated the Union's resolve to preserve the nation.

#2: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

Another of the most impactful political speeches was Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This political speechwriting example was pivotal in the American civil rights movement. King's eloquent articulation of his dream for a racially integrated and just society resonated deeply with millions. The speech helped mobilize support for civil rights legislation and highlighted the urgent need for racial equality. King's call for nonviolent protest and his vision for a future where individuals would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin inspired generations of activists. It was crucial in advancing civil rights legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

#3: Ronald Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” Speech

One of the most impactful political speeches ever given was the one delivered at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, during which President Ronald Reagan issued a powerful challenge to the Soviet Union by demanding, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The Berlin Wall, which had divided East and West Berlin for decades, symbolized the Cold War's division. This political speechwriting example indicated the West's commitment to freedom and democracy. While the immediate impact of the speech was limited, it contributed to the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Reagan's words resonated with people on both sides of the Iron Curtain, serving as a rallying cry for change.

Studying these speeches and tailoring speeches after them and other iconic speeches is a great way to learn public speaking strategies. These American political speeches share the theme of advocating for equality, justice and freedom. They transcended their immediate contexts to become lasting symbols of American ideals and continue inspiring generations of Americans and people worldwide. 

Here are some public speaking strategies to employ based on these inspirational speeches:

Ensure that the central theme of your political campaign communication resonates with the target audience and keep it at the forefront of the speech.

Using metaphors, similes, and emotionally resonant phrases to evoke powerful imagery and emotions in the audience is a critical speech delivery technique that can help your political campaign communications.

Understanding the audience's needs, aspirations, and concerns so that the message connects deeply is a speechwriting best practice you will want to remember.

Incorporating a clear and compelling call to action into the speech is an essential political communication strategy.

Be aware of historical contexts when crafting political persuasions for political campaign communications.

Align messages with the speaker's personality and values.

Employ strategic repetition to emphasize critical political persuasions because it will make them more memorable.

Use speech writing techniques to capture the speaker's authentic voice and beliefs.

Tips for Effective Speech Delivery

Candidates often ask speechwriters to give them speech delivery techniques. They may recommend several public speaking strategies that will help you with effective speech delivery. These include:

Using body gestures and body language to enhance the message's impact is a critical speech delivery technique as it helps convey confidence and credibility so that the audience connects to you better.

Connecting with the audience is paramount because it establishes rapport, fosters voter engagement and ensures the message resonates with the listeners personally. Therefore, it is crucial to remember this idea while focusing on speech delivery techniques as you build your political communication strategy.

Breathing deeply right before giving a speech is a vital speech delivery technique that can help you overcome stage fright as it calms nerves and boosts confidence.

Adapting Your Speech for Different Audiences

Among speech writing best practices is to adapt a speech to different audiences and your audience's demographics. This is essential for ensuring political persuasion as the message is relevant, relatable, and inclusive. Practicing this as you concentrate on other speech writing best practices ensures audience engagement occurs and that they will understand your messaging better.

Another key among speech writing best practices is remembering to be specific during a speech. This is vital as it adds credibility and clarity to the candidate messaging, helping to ensure audience engagement. Therefore, ensure that you use speech writing techniques for persuasive communication that address specific issues and concerns experienced by the audience.

Navigating Ethical Considerations in Political Speechwriting

Honesty is a fundamental pillar of trust and accountability in a democratic society, so when politicians are truthful in their political campaign messaging, they build integrity and foster the public's faith in their leadership. Citizens can make informed decisions when a politician uses truthful political campaign messaging. Therefore, make sure to always practice ethical speech writing.

Ethical speech writing also means avoiding divisive rhetoric because it often deepens existing divisions, polarizes communities, and makes finding common ground on important issues more difficult. Divisive rhetoric hinders constructive dialogue between political opponents. Using speech writing techniques that are inclusive, respectful, and constructive fosters unity, promotes understanding and achieves positive outcomes, which is essential for driving audience engagement in your political campaign messaging.

Leveraging Technology for Speechwriting

Many speech writing resources can help you. Let these speechwriting resources serve as a guide, but do not rely totally on speech writing resources, or you will block out the candidate's personality. Among the most effective speech writing tips is to let speechwriting tools enhance the speech writing process by using them to improve speech writing techniques. Among these speech writing tools, speech writing software is a vital resource that plays a pivotal role in organizing thoughts, structuring arguments, and drafting coherent content while creating political discourse and crafting political messages. Utilizing these effective speech writing tips gives you access to templates, outlines, and organization features that help transform ideas into well-structured political discourses. Even if you usually shy away from technology, try speech writing software.

An easy place to start is Good Party’s AI Campaign Manager , which can help candidates draft launch speeches with ease, saving time and energy. 

Additionally, another favorite among effective speech writing tips is to use research databases. These are invaluable tools for the speech writing process as they allow you to access vast amounts of information, including historical data, statistics, and policy details. Therefore, they are an invaluable speech writing resource, enabling speechwriters to conduct thorough research, fact-check statements, and bolster arguments with credible sources.

Furthermore, grammar and style-checking software is another indispensable software component critical to the speech writing process. This speech writing resource helps to refine language and ensure that the political rhetoric is clear, is grammatically correct, and resonates with the intended audience. These tools help avoid common language pitfalls and enhance the overall quality of the writing.

Another effective speech writing tip is to incorporate digital elements into political discourse, as using them engages a more diverse audience. Integrating visuals, such as infographics and charts, can make complex data more accessible by providing a visual context that aids comprehension. These graphic elements enhance understanding, make the speech more memorable, and help to ensure that crucial candidate messaging resonates with broader demographics.

Speech writing and public relations are intrinsically linked, playing a pivotal role in shaping the perception of individuals. Effective speechmaking in public relations allows for the dissemination of critical messages to target audiences. Through speechwriting and public relations strategies, public figures can build and maintain trust, manage their reputation and foster meaningful connections with voters, underscoring the indispensable synergy between speech writing and public relations in elections.

The Role of Speechwriters in Political Campaigns

Speechwriters often collaborate closely with candidates to help them build political communication skills. These political communication skills include articulating their vision, values and policy positions. Ethical speech writing requires you to lay aside your ideas and write from the candidate's point of view. This effective speech writing tip often begins with in-depth interviews to understand the candidate's personality, goals and key messages. Speechwriters then craft political rhetoric aligning with the candidate's voice and resonating with their intended audience. Regular communication and feedback loops are vital for crafting political messages, allowing for revisions and fine-tuning political communication skills to ensure that inspirational speeches are authentic and compelling. The partnership between speechwriters and candidates when crafting political messages is a dynamic process that must convey the candidate's vision effectively and connect with voters.

However, not all candidates need to hire speechwriters. With Good Party’s AI Campaign Manager , candidates can generate drafts of political speeches, completely for free. Our tools are especially helpful for crafting launch speeches, which candidates can give at campaign launch events and to kick off their campaigns.

Inspirational speeches, meticulously tailored to resonate with diverse audiences and delivered with authenticity, possess the potential to inspire, inform and mobilize voters, encapsulating a candidate's vision and values. Often, the words spoken reverberate in the electorate's hearts and minds. Tailoring speeches in this way gives them the power to shape the outcome of campaigns and the nation's course. Political rhetoric bridges the divide between candidates and voters, uniting diverse communities under a shared vision. Overall, remember that the qualities of a great speech rely on elements of style, elements of substance, and elements of impact.

6 tips for writing a powerful political campaign speech

Meredith Thatcher | September 13, 2016

What makes a great campaign speech? As it turns out, the same attributes as a document written in plain language. The most effective speeches are those that use clear language in a series of short statements, and make the speaker’s points with conviction. Here are six tips to creating an effective campaign speech.

Image by dizain / shutterstock

1. Get potential voters on side

On a ‘whistle-stop’ tour of villages, towns, cities, counties, territories and states, getting as many potential voters on board in as short a time as possible is critical.

Build rapport from the start. Know about the area you’re visiting and the issues that matter to the residents who live there. Comment on those issues to bridge the gap from outsider to local. Tell a story that they can relate to instead of just spouting statistics. Your audience needs context. If you connect with them, they’ll be prepared to hear what you have to say. To get their vote, you need them on your side.

In the 2016 US Presidential election campaign, Hillary Clinton tried to get the supporters of fellow candidate Bernie Sanders on side after he dropped out of the race. Clinton stated:

And to all of your [Sanders’] supporters here and around the country, I want you to know I’ve heard you. Your cause is our cause. Our country needs your ideas, energy and passion. That is the only way we can turn our progressive platform into real change for America. We wrote it together, now let’s go out and make it happen together!

2. Get your message out fast

We live in a world of distraction. People retain very little, so get your message out fast. You want a sound bite that will capture the attention of potential voters. Keep your statement short and connected to a core theme. Then weave that theme through four to five key messages to take your audience on a memorable journey.

3. Give equal measure to empathy, warmth, and authority

Know how many people are likely to attend the event where you’re giving your speech. Remember to welcome your audience and thank them for turning up. Then deliver your comments so that each person feels like you’re having a fireside chat with them.

Tone really matters — check out our online course to polish yours

A conversation is much better than a lecture, but don’t be too spontaneous. Get your timing right. Only tell a joke if you know everyone listening will get it, as no one likes being left out. And some events will be inappropriate for jokes.

The hard part is empathising with the concerns of potential voters while commanding authority. Remember to smile, and not just for the cameras. But also remember that some people view a show of emotion as a strength; others view it as a weakness. Exude confidence to assure them that you can lead and make decisions that deliver tangible benefits for them.

People may say they want to vote for someone they can talk to when what they really want is someone who can solve problems and make tough calls in any situation. So, above all, show your audience that you can do the job.

At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump put his key message first and then tried to achieve a balance between warmth and authority. Trump stated:

U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! Together, we will lead our party back to the White House, and we will lead our country back to safety, prosperity, and peace. We will be a country of generosity and warmth. But we will also be a country of law and order.

4. Stay in control and be confident

Your speech may start on the page, but you deliver it orally. Write as you will speak. Don’t waffle or include unfocused comments. Don’t get caught out using a voice that’s not your own. The audience will know immediately. Don’t be hesitant. The audience will know if you’re holding back and wonder why.

Only ask a question if you already know the answer. Use the problem–solution format throughout your speech. State the problem and provide an achievable solution. Make your messages unambigous and clear. See how your audience reacts, and respond accordingly.

In the end, leave your audience in no doubt about what you’re saying, why you’re saying it, and what they should do with your information. After all, you want their next step to be to vote for you.

5. Use repetition to best effect

Repeated messages stick. At the end, draw out your key themes and briefly repeat what you’ve said. Layer each message to build momentum to your final point. Make that point important enough that the audience will want to discuss it. This is another appropriate place for a sound bite. You need your name to stay at the top of the voters’ list of choices.

Former US President Barack Obama used repetitive phrases. Sometimes he ends a sentence in a way that makes people wonder what’s coming next. He makes a statement, pauses, and adds, ‘but that’s not what makes us…’ This makes people listen and helps to reinforce the point to come.

Obama has also used ‘I’ve seen it…’ to open statements. This shows he understands the concerns of the people — that he is one of them.

6. Take inspiration from the great orators

One of the best political speeches to incorporate the previous five elements was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural address to a country in the midst of the Great Depression. His 3 March 1933 speech points to the hard decisions that lie ahead. But it also reassures that a positive attitude and optimism about the future will see the country through the tough times.

The speech also notes that the people’s support and commitment to work together is an integral part of this journey. Roosevelt’s speech reads in part:

This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor do we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

The speech is not only memorable — it has stood the test of time. It’s as relevant today as when first uttered more than 70 years ago.

Want help to write memorably?

Start with our short online course Tone Matters

Or join one of our writing workshops

(Last updated: 19 October 2023)

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Insights, tips, and professional development opportunities.

Name * Email *

How To Write A Political Speech

Crafting a compelling political speech holds immense importance for any aspiring politician and successful political campaign. It is a powerful tool for connecting with the audience, influencing opinions, and igniting action. To make speeches truly impactful, harnessing the power of voter engagement and direct sourcing is key. Politicians can gather valuable insights directly from the people they aim to represent by actively engaging with voters and listening to their concerns.

This approach adds significant value to speeches and establishes an authentic connection with voters. This blog post will explore the significance of delivering compelling political speeches and highlight the benefits of incorporating voter engagement and direct sourcing techniques. By the end, you'll gain practical insights into creating lessons that resonate with your audience and make a lasting impact. Revise your political speechwriting skills with valuable tips and actionable strategies!

Writing a compelling political speech that resonates with your audience is vital for any politician. Two key factors are crucial to achieving this: defining your objectives and knowing your target audience.

• Defining the objectives: Your speech should have a clear purpose, whether it is to persuade, inspire, or educate your listeners. You can shape your address by defining your goals to achieve those desired outcomes effectively. ‍
• Knowing your target audience: Understanding your audience's demographics, concerns, and aspirations is fundamental. This knowledge allows you to tailor your message in a way that connects with them on a personal level. You can create a speech that resonates deeply and captures their attention by addressing their needs and desires.

Research and Preparation

Research and preparation are vital steps in writing an impactful political speech. By gathering comprehensive data from various sources, conducting surveys, and analyzing voter demographics, you can enhance the effectiveness of your address. Here are key actions to take:

• Collecting data from various sources: Traditional media such as newspapers, TV, and radio provide insights into current political events and public sentiment. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube offer information on trending topics and public discourse. Online forums and communities like Reddit, Quora, and specialized political forums allow you to tap into discussions and understand different perspectives. ‍
• Conducting surveys and opinion polls: ‍ Engaging in surveys and opinion polls helps you gauge your target audience's opinions, preferences, and concerns. This data provides valuable insights to shape your speech accordingly. ‍
• Analyzing voter demographics and specific concerns: ‍ Understanding your audience's demographics, including age, gender, and location, enables you to tailor your speech to resonate with their unique backgrounds and experiences. Additionally, identifying specific concerns and issues that matter to voters allows you to address them directly in your speech, making it more relevant and impactful.

By undertaking thorough research and preparation, you will have a solid foundation for crafting a compelling political speech that speaks directly to your audience's needs and aspirations. In the upcoming sections, we will explore these topics in more detail, providing you with practical strategies to integrate the collected data effectively into your speechwriting process. Get ready to take your political speechwriting skills to the next level!

Crafting a Compelling Political Speech

Crafting a powerful political speech requires careful consideration of the message you want to convey. Here are key steps to help you create a compelling address:

• Identifying key issues and topics: Start by identifying crucial issues such as the economy and jobs, healthcare and social welfare, education and student debt, climate change and environmental policies, and national security and foreign affairs. These topics are often at the forefront of public discourse and resonate with voters. ‍
• Prioritizing topics based on voter feedback and relevance: ‍ Listen to the feedback and concerns of voters through surveys, town hall meetings, and direct engagement. Prioritize the topics that resonate most with your audience, ensuring your speech addresses their pressing issues. ‍
• Developing a compelling narrative: ‍ Structure your speech with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion to provide a cohesive flow. Utilize storytelling techniques to make your message engaging and relatable, capturing your audience's attention. Connect your experiences to policy proposals, humanizing your speech and showing your understanding of real-life impacts. Emphasize empathy and relatability to establish a genuine connection with your audience, showcasing that you understand and share their concerns.

Following these steps, you can craft a persuasive political speech highlighting key issues, resonating with voters, and inspiring action. In the following sections, we will delve deeper into each aspect, providing you with practical tips and techniques to enhance the impact of your speech. Prepare to deliver a memorable and influential address that leaves a lasting impression!

Rehearsing your political speech is a critical step that significantly aids your confidence and overall delivery. Here are some valuable tips to consider when it comes to rehearsing:

• Practice makes perfect: Dedicate ample time to rehearsing your speech before presenting it to an audience. Aim to rehearse your address at least five times to familiarize yourself with the content, structure, and flow. ‍
• Seek feedback from your team: Once you've practiced independently, deliver your speech to your team and invite their constructive criticism. Their feedback can provide valuable insights and help you refine your points, delivery, and overall performance. ‍
• Conduct a full dress rehearsal: Organize a complete dress rehearsal with your team, where they play the roles of a moderator and your competition. This simulation allows you to identify potential weaknesses in your arguments, anticipate challenging questions, and fine-tune your delivery. ‍
• Capture and review your performance: Consider filming yourself giving the speech during rehearsal. Watching the recording afterwards lets you objectively evaluate your performance, body language, and speaking style. Take note of areas where improvements can be made and make adjustments accordingly. ‍
• Ensure accessibility through simplicity: While rehearsing, approach your speech from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with the topics you're addressing. Use simple language and many analogies to make your political speech accessible to many listeners. This approach enhances understanding and enables your message to resonate with the entire electorate.

By incorporating rehearsal into your speechwriting process, you can boost your confidence, identify areas for improvement, and deliver a polished and impactful speech. Remember, rehearsing allows you to refine your points, connect with your audience effectively, and ensure your message is conveyed clearly, concisely, and relatable. ‍

Use Common Language

Using common language in political speech writing is essential to effectively connect with your audience and ensure your message resonates with a wide range of listeners. Here are key considerations when it comes to using common language:

• ‍ Speak in an accessible manner:   Communicate in a way that is easily understandable to all. Avoid excessive jargon, complex terminology, or convoluted sentences that may confuse or alienate your audience. Use clear and concise language that allows anyone to grasp your message. ‍ ‍
• Avoid offensive terms:   Maintaining a respectful and inclusive tone during your speech is important. Steer clear of profane or derogatory language that could offend or marginalize certain groups. Treat your audience with respect, emphasizing unity and understanding. ‍ ‍
• Harness the power of stories and personal accounts:   Stories and first-person narratives profoundly impact your audience. Utilize relatable anecdotes and real-life experiences to illustrate your points, making your arguments more engaging, relatable, and emotionally compelling. ‍ ‍
• Balance simplicity with depth:   While most of your content should be easily understandable by anyone, it is acceptable to incorporate academic research, quotations, or statistics that may require additional explanation. Find a balance between simplicity and depth, ensuring that even complex ideas can be grasped by your listeners with the appropriate context and explanation.

Using common language can effectively bridge the gap between complex ideas and the understanding of your audience. Remember, the goal is to connect with as many people as possible, making your message accessible, relatable, and impactful. So, craft your speech with clarity and simplicity while utilizing stories and personal accounts to create an emotional connection that resonates with your listeners.

How to Construct An Argument

Constructing a compelling argument is crucial to writing a persuasive political speech. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you build a strong and impactful argument:

• Clearly state your thesis: Begin by articulating your main point or thesis statement. This sets the foundation for your argument and provides a clear focus for your speech. ‍
• Gather supporting evidence: Collect relevant facts, statistics, expert opinions, and real-life examples that support your thesis. Strong evidence adds credibility and strengthens your argument. ‍
• Organize your points logically: Structure your argument logically and coherently. Present your facts in a sequence that builds upon each other, leading your audience towards your main thesis. ‍
• Anticipate counterarguments: Consider potential counterarguments to your position and address them proactively. This demonstrates thoroughness and strengthens your overall argument. ‍
• Use persuasive language: Choose words and phrases that are persuasive and compelling. Craft your message to resonate with your audience emotionally and intellectually. ‍
• Appeal to logic and emotions: Blend logical reasoning with emotional appeals to make your argument more persuasive. Use rational evidence to support your claims and evoke emotions to connect with your audience more deeply. ‍
• Use rhetorical devices: Employ rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions to enhance the impact of your argument and make it more memorable. ‍
• Summarize and restate your main points: Conclude your argument by summarizing your main points and restating your thesis. Leave your audience clearly understanding your position and a compelling call to action.

These steps can construct a strong and persuasive argument in your political speech. Remember to support your claims with evidence, organize your points effectively, and appeal to logic and emotions. With a well-constructed argument, your address will be poised to influence opinions and inspire action.

Voter Engagement for your Speech

Engaging with voters through various tactics is essential to crafting a compelling political speech. Here's why it matters and how you can make the most of it:

importance of voter contact tactics:

• Door-to-door canvassing allows you to connect with voters on a personal level, fostering trust and building rapport.
• Town hall meetings provide a platform for open dialogue, enabling you to directly understand local issues and concerns of the community.
• Phone calls and text messages offer an opportunity to engage voters individually, creating a sense of importance and personal connection.

Benefits of engaging voters directly:

• Building trust and rapport strengthens your relationship with voters, making your message more impactful and memorable.
• Understanding local issues and concerns firsthand helps you address them effectively in your speech, showing your commitment to representing the community's needs.
• Obtaining firsthand stories and anecdotes allows you to humanize your speech, adding authenticity and relatability to your message.

Techniques for effective voter engagement:

• Active listening and showing empathy demonstrate your genuine interest in understanding voters' perspectives and concerns.
• Asking open-ended questions encourages voters to share their thoughts and experiences, providing valuable insights for shaping your speech.
• Encouraging voter participation in the speechwriting process empowers them. It ensures their voices are heard, enhancing the authenticity of your speech.
• Utilizing social media platforms to solicit input and feedback broadens your reach. It allows you to engage with a wider audience, gathering diverse perspectives and ideas.

By actively engaging voters through canvassing and other community outreach , you gain invaluable insights, stories, and anecdotes that can greatly enrich your political speech. In the upcoming sections, we will delve deeper into these techniques, providing you with practical strategies to maximize voter engagement and create lessons that truly resonate with your audience. Get ready to harness the power of direct sourcing and make a meaningful impact with your speech!

Incorporating voter input into your speechwriting process is a powerful way to create speeches that truly resonate with your audience. Here's how you can leverage voter input, with a special emphasis on the significance of canvassing:

• ‍ Analyzing and categorizing voter stories and concerns: By carefully listening to voters' stories and concerns gathered through canvassing, town hall meetings, and other engagement tactics, you can analyze and categorize them to identify common threads and key issues. ‍ ‍
• Identifying common themes and patterns: By recognizing recurring themes and patterns in voter input, you gain insights into your constituency's collective concerns and aspirations. This knowledge allows you to address them effectively in your speech. ‍ ‍
• Integrating voter anecdotes into the speech: Personalizing the message by incorporating specific anecdotes and stories voters share, you personalize your speech, making it relatable and impactful. Highlighting real-life impacts: Sharing how specific policies or decisions affect real people helps create a deeper understanding and empathy among your audience. ‍ ‍
• Acknowledging and addressing dissenting viewpoints: While incorporating voter input, it's important to acknowledge and address dissenting views. By respectfully engaging with opposing perspectives, you demonstrate inclusivity and a willingness to consider all voices.

By actively involving voters in the speechwriting process, you ensure their concerns and experiences are reflected in your message. This adds authenticity and relatability and strengthens your connection with your audience. In the subsequent sections, we will delve deeper into these strategies, providing you with practical tips to seamlessly integrate voter input into your political speeches. Get ready to create addresses that truly resonate and engage your audience profoundly!

The Ten Minutes Beforehand

The ten minutes beforehand hold significant value in maximizing the impact of your political speech. Here's how you can make the most of this crucial time, offering practical strategies to enhance your performance and connect with your audience:

Center yourself through mindfulness techniques:

• Take deep breaths to calm your nerves and center your mind.
• Practice mindfulness or meditation to focus your thoughts and promote a sense of presence.

Review your key talking points:

• Take a moment to mentally review the main points and messages you want to convey.
• Ensure that your speech aligns with your objectives and resonates with your audience.

Visualize success:

• Visualize yourself delivering a powerful and impactful speech with confidence and clarity.
• Envision a positive response from your audience, creating a sense of belief and determination.

Positive self-talk:

• Engage in positive self-talk to boost your confidence and banish self-doubt.
• Remind yourself of your strengths, expertise, and message value.

Establish a connection with your audience:

• Scan the room and make eye contact with individuals in the audience.
• This brief interaction establishes an initial connection and helps you establish rapport.

Review technical aspects:

• Double-check any specialized equipment or visual aids to ensure they are functioning properly.
• Familiarize yourself with the stage setup and microphone placement for seamless delivery.

Warm up your voice and body:

• Perform vocal warm-up exercises to ensure clarity and projection in your speech.
• Engage in gentle stretches or movements to release tension and promote a relaxed body language.

By utilizing these strategies ten minutes beforehand, you can optimize your mindset, refine your delivery, and establish an immediate connection with your audience. Remember that these moments set the stage for a memorable speech, allowing you to effectively convey your message, inspire your audience, and leave a lasting impact.

Engaging voters through direct sourcing, especially through canvassing, holds immense power in creating impactful political speeches. By incorporating voter input, speeches can exude authenticity and relatability, connecting with the concerns and aspirations of the electorate. This approach inspires trust and establishes a strong connection between politicians and the people they aim to represent. Crafting well-articulated speeches that resonate with voters is a transformative way to influence opinions and ignite action. As you refine your speech writing skills, remember the significance of actively engaging voters, listening to their stories, and addressing their concerns. By doing so, you will deliver speeches that make a lasting impact, inspire change, and foster a deeper connection with your audience.

Get your free 7-day trial of Ecanvasser

How to win a political election...anywhere in the world.

Discover the top strategies used by winning campaigns

Sign up now to have our campaign consultants guide you through your 7-day trial

You may also be interested in

Calculate How Many Votes You Need To Win Your Election

A Guide to the Essential Political Campaign Tools

Copyright © 2023 Ecanvasser - All rights reserved.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. for static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. for dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. voila.

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Read more articles.

Introducing Pin Drop: The New Feature for Building a Database from Scratch

Ecanvasser 2022 Feature Recap

Let's inspire your inbox.

Listening to our current users,  we are aware that there can be an internal struggle of team management when it comes to.

Blog Search

Jul 17, 2017

Write a Political Speech

by The Campaign Workshop

Write a Political Speech for Strategic Communications

Write a Political Speech - All candidates for political office should have a strategic communications plan in place, but not all candidates need to worry about writing lots of speeches for their campaign. For local office races, you may only find yourself wishing you had a speech during your announcement and on election night. In those moments, don’t panic! Writing a basic speech is easier than you think.

Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

There’s a format used by most political speechwriters, whether they realize they’re using it or not, called Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.  When you write a political speech use the five components of the Monroe Sequence, you can develop a persuasive argument to communicate just about anything your campaign might need - GOTV, asking for donations, defending a policy - in no time! All you have to do is place your argument into these five strategic steps:

1. Attention: This is where you draw the audience in at the top of a speech. It’s often necessary to welcome people and thank certain members of your audience right away, but try to keep that part short. Instead, focus on engaging your listeners. An attention grabber could be anything from a short personal anecdote to a rhetorical question. It allows the audience to connect with you and settle in for the rest of the speech.

2. Need: The need step could also be known as the problem step. This is where your argument truly begins. In the context of a strategic communications plan, the need step often lays out how a certain elected official or policy isn’t doing the best job. In this phase of the speech, you want to invite the audience to question their current situation.

3.  Satisfaction: Satisfaction comes when you provide a solution to the problem that was laid out in the need step. You want to calm the audience’s anxieties by explaining how you are going to make their lives better, and how the problem doesn’t have to exist. Is the problem that the district’s representative is failing to support small businesses? Lay out your plans to promote the local economy. 

4.  Visualization: The visualization step can be a little bit tricky because it’s fairly similar to the satisfaction step. In the satisfaction phase, you are presenting the details of your solution. Visualization ramps things up a bit by inviting your audience to imagine what their lives would look like if your solution (most likely you getting elected) actually happened. You need to paint a clear picture that the audience can see themselves in.

5.  Action: It’s all built up to this - asking your audience to actually DO something about the problem in order to help achieve your solution. In a strategic communications plan, this often means asking for a vote or a campaign contribution. The most strategic action steps are clear and simple. You want the audience to understand exactly what it is that they can do, and then feel compelled to do it. The action step should sum up what the purpose of your speech was all about. 

While this is the most standard sequence used when you write a political speech, feel free to play around with the order of the steps. Just remember that ultimately, each of these steps is helping you prove a point. Don’t be afraid to break minor grammar rules, either. Writing for the ear is different than writing for the eye. If you spoke in the same style as most great writing, you would probably come off sounding a little distant or robotic to your audience. Starting sentences with conjunctions and using common language can actually work really well in a political communications. 

Have questions about how to write a political speech?  Comment below. Check out blogs on political communications here!

Sign Up for our Blog!

How to Start a Campaign Speech

How to Write a Speech Running for City Council

A campaign speech must convey an overall message to the intended audience. It must appeal to the emotions and feelings of the audience and connect the spoken words to persons who will hopefully support the candidate giving the speech. The greatest impact a speech can have is to mobilize a group of people to support, fund and to work for the candidate making the speech. All of this must be clearly articulated during the beginning of the speech.

Introduce yourself. Tell the people who you are in the most concise way without overwhelming them with your resume. Focus on those credentials that support you in being qualified and the best candidate for the office you seek.

Start the speech by appealing to the heart of the people who will listen to the speech. Vary your speech cadences, rhythms and voice intonation so that your speech appeals to the human psyche.

State the overall purpose of the campaign early in the speech. Ensure that the beginning of the speech is clear and outlines two to three main ideas that the speech will cover. Listeners will only retain a few points at a time. Carefully reiterate those main ideas throughout the speech.

Write the speech for the intended audience. Cater the speech to address the issues that are important to the audience. Use demographic data to help design the speech for the persons that will be in attendance to hear the speech.

Related Articles

How to Establish Credibility in an Informative Speech

How to Write a Speech Essay

Organizational Methods for Writing a Speech

How to Do a Acknowledgement Speech

How to give an annual day speech in school.

How to Write a Definition Speech

How to Write a Critical Analysis of a Speech

How to structure a presentation.

• Heartland: Campaign Speeches

Based in Virginia, Kevin M. Jackson has been writing professionally since 2003. He is the author of the books "Life Lessons for My Sons" and "When GOD Speaks." Jackson holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from Savannah State University and a Master of Arts in urban education from Norfolk State University.

• AI Content Shield
• AI KW Research
• AI Assistant
• SEO Optimizer
• AI KW Clustering
• Customer reviews
• The NLO Revolution
• Press Center
• Help Center
• Content Resources
• Facebook Group

Persuasive Presidential Speech: Expert & Effective Guide

Table of Contents

A solid presidential speech can be an effective tool to inspire and rally your supporters, but it also requires careful consideration and preparation. This article will guide you if you are wondering  how to write a persuasive presidential speech .

As president, your speeches are crucial to communicating with the people you represent. Writing a persuasive presidential address is a task that requires comprehensive planning and a strategic approach. Your words must inspire action, connect people, and shape the future, whether you’re President of the United States or a school association.

Here are a few helpful tips for crafting a well-written persuasive presidential speech.

How to Write a Persuasive Presidential Speech

When it comes to writing a presidential speech , simplicity is key. Your audience should be able to understand your message without getting lost in complex language or wordy sentences. 

The following are some guidelines to assist you in convincing your audience and effectively communicating your message:

1. Create an Outline

Create an outline of your main talking points. This will assist you in remaining focused on the issues that are most important to your audience.

2. Keep Your Sentences Short and concise.

Keep sentences related to your main message short and to the point. This will help your audience stay engaged and make it easier for them to understand your message.

3. Show Gratitude

Be grateful for your audience’s attendance and make it feel like you are speaking to them individually. This will help build a personal connection with your audience and make them more receptive to your message.

4. Be Clear About How you Will Solve any Problems You are Addressing.

Outline the problems your audience is facing and how you propose to solve them using the problem-solution structure. This will make it easier for your audience to comprehend your strategy and why you are the best person for the task.

5. Focus on the positives

If you are writing a campaign speech, let your speech focus on the positive aspects of your campaign and avoid insults or negativity. This will help you maintain a positive image and avoid alienating your audience.

6. Use repetitive phrases

To emphasize important concepts, use recurring words and phrases throughout the speech. Your message will become more effective due to the audience’s ability to remember it.

7. End with a call to action

Motivate the audience to take action and thank them for listening to your speech. This will help you end on a high note and inspire your audience to support your campaign.

8. Take a cue from great speakers.

Take inspiration from successful public speakers and politicians. Observing the techniques and strategies used by successful leaders can help you craft a more effective speech.

How to Start a Presidential Speech

The introduction of a presidential speech is crucial in setting the tone and capturing the audience’s attention . Here are some tips for starting your speech effectively:

• Begin with a greeting and acknowledge any important individuals in the audience. This will help you establish a personal connection with your audience and show respect for their presence.
• Briefly explain the reason for your speech and consider using humor to break the ice, if appropriate. This act will help you connect with your audience and increase their receptivity to your message.

Planning Your Speech

Effective planning is key to delivering a strong presidential speech. When preparing your speech, take into account the following steps:

1. Choose a few key issues to address .

These should be problems that are important to your audience and that you are passionate about solving.

2. Highlight your involvement in your community. 

Show your audience that you are passionate about the community and active in it. Clubs, student government, events you’ve attended or helped plan, and volunteer work you’re working on make your audience more interested.

3. Emphasize your leadership skills

Find and use an approach that emphasizes your leadership skills and decision-making abilities. Use examples from your experience to demonstrate your ability to lead and make informed decisions. This will help your audience see that you have the skills and qualities necessary to be a successful leader.

4. Use Simple and Clear Transitions

Use simple transitions to help the audience follow along with your speech and comprehend its organization and main points. Link your point in simple ways. This will make it easier for your audience to pay attention and follow along with your speech.

5. Use Powerful Language and Imagery

Use powerful language and imagery to make an emotional connection with the audience. Using descriptive language and evocative imagery can help your audience feel more connected to your message and more invested in your campaign.

6. Practice and seek feedback

Practice your speech and consider seeking feedback from friends or advisors. By practicing your speech, you can improve your delivery and fine-tune your message. Seeking feedback from others can also help you identify areas for improvement and make your speech more effective.

Delivering Your Speech

Once you have composed and planned your speech, it’s time to focus on delivering it effectively. These tips will help you deliver a confident and compelling presidential speech:

• Use confident body language and facial expressions . By standing tall, making eye contact, and using confident gestures, you can project confidence and credibility to your audience.
• Use a clear and strong speaking voice . Practice speaking slowly and clearly to help your audience understand your message and stay engaged.
• Use appropriate pauses and emphasis. Use pauses to impact your message. By varying your pace and emphasizing key points, you can keep your audience’s attention and make your message more powerful.
• Use props or visual aids to help illustrate your points.  By using props or visual aids, you can help your audience better understand your message and make it more memorable.
• Engage with your Audience.  By asking questions, making jokes, and interacting with your audience, you can build a personal connection and make your speech more engaging.
• Show Passion . Show your passion for the issues you are addressing. This will help your audience see that you are committed to making a difference and care about their concerns.

Presidential Campaign Speech Example

My fellow Americans, I am Adam Brown, and today I stand before you as a candidate for the esteemed position of school president. I understand that some of you may have concerns about my qualifications. I am the youngest student ever to run for this office. However, I assure you that I can lead our student body to new heights of success and achievement.

I possess many qualities that make me uniquely suited to this role. First and foremost, I am a compassionate and inclusive leader. I’m always willing to listen to the voices and perspectives of my peers before making any decisions. I’m also a hardworking and persistent individual with a track record of successfully completing any task I set my mind to.

I am an active and engaged member of our school community, always seeking ways to get involved and make a lasting impact. I bring a fresh perspective and new ideas, having come from another school and ready to bring fresh air to our own.

If you elect me as your school president, I promise to work tirelessly on behalf of our student body. I will always put your needs and interests first. I will never let you down and will always strive to be the best leader I can be. Thank you for considering me for this vital role.

As a president or aspiring president, your speeches are important for inspiring and mobilizing people to take action. With these tips on  how to write a persuasive presidential speech , you can effectively communicate your message and convince your audience.

If you’re running for school president or leading a country, these tips can help you deliver a compelling speech.

Abir Ghenaiet

Abir is a data analyst and researcher. Among her interests are artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing. As a humanitarian and educator, she actively supports women in tech and promotes diversity.

Explore All Write A Speech Articles

How to write a great welcome speech.

Writing an effective welcome speech is a form of art. It requires a delicate balance of knowledge, wit, charm, and…

• Write A Speech

Effective Guide: How to Write a Salutatorian Speech

Writing an effective salutatorian speech is a challenging yet rewarding experience. It takes creativity, dedication, and plenty of practice to…

Key Guide: How to Write a Great Memorial Speech

Writing a memorable memorial speech that captures the life and legacy of your loved one can be an incredibly daunting…

Better Guide: How to Write a Funny Valedictorian Speech

Writing a funny valedictorian speech can be both challenging and rewarding. For those who have the knowledge, experience, and wit…

Writing A Unique & Memorable Wedding Ceremony Speech

People around you, whether family, friends, or acquaintances, will get married someday. And you might be tasked with delivering the…

Unleashing Success: Motivational Speech to Inspire Students

Success is a journey, not a destination. It is a continuous process of striving, learning, and growing–something every student should…

How Trump’s Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation

Their claims of censorship have successfully stymied the effort to filter election lies online.

Three years after Mr. Trump spread falsehoods about his defeat online, social media platforms have fewer checks on the intentional spread of lies about elections. Credit... Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Supported by

• Share full article

By Jim Rutenberg and Steven Lee Myers

• March 17, 2024

In the wake of the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, a groundswell built in Washington to rein in the onslaught of lies that had fueled the assault on the peaceful transfer of power.

Social media companies suspended Donald J. Trump, then the president, and many of his allies from the platforms they had used to spread misinformation about his defeat and whip up the attempt to overturn it. The Biden administration, Democrats in Congress and even some Republicans sought to do more to hold the companies accountable. Academic researchers wrestled with how to strengthen efforts to monitor false posts.

Mr. Trump and his allies embarked instead on a counteroffensive, a coordinated effort to block what they viewed as a dangerous effort to censor conservatives.

They have unquestionably prevailed.

Waged in the courts, in Congress and in the seething precincts of the internet, that effort has eviscerated attempts to shield elections from disinformation in the social media era. It tapped into — and then, critics say, twisted — the fierce debate over free speech and the government’s role in policing content.

Projects that were once bipartisan, including one started by the Trump administration, have been recast as deep-state conspiracies to rig elections. Facing legal and political blowback, the Biden administration has largely abandoned moves that might be construed as stifling political speech.

While little noticed by most Americans, the effort has helped cut a path for Mr. Trump’s attempt to recapture the presidency. Disinformation about elections is once again coursing through news feeds, aiding Mr. Trump as he fuels his comeback with falsehoods about the 2020 election.

“The censorship cartel must be dismantled and destroyed, and it must happen immediately,” he thundered at the start of his 2024 campaign.

The counteroffensive was led by former Trump aides and allies who had also pushed to overturn the 2020 election. They include Stephen Miller, the White House policy adviser; the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, both Republicans; and lawmakers in Congress like Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, who since last year has led a House subcommittee to investigate what it calls “the weaponization of government.”

Those involved draw financial support from conservative donors who have backed groups that promoted lies about voting in 2020. They have worked alongside an eclectic cast of characters, including Elon Musk, the billionaire who bought Twitter and vowed to make it a bastion of free speech, and Mike Benz, a former Trump administration official who previously produced content for a social media account that trafficked in posts about “white ethnic displacement.” (More recently, Mr. Benz originated the false assertion that Taylor Swift was a “psychological operation” asset for the Pentagon.)

Three years after Mr. Trump’s posts about rigged voting machines and stuffed ballot boxes went viral, he and his allies have achieved a stunning reversal of online fortune. Social media platforms now provide fewer checks against the intentional spread of lies about elections.

“The people that benefit from the spread of disinformation have effectively silenced many of the people that would try to call them out,” said Kate Starbird, a professor at the University of Washington whose research on disinformation made her a target of the effort.

It took aim at a patchwork of systems, started in Mr. Trump’s administration, that were intended to protect U.S. democracy from foreign interference. As those systems evolved to address domestic sources of misinformation, federal officials and private researchers began urging social media companies to do more to enforce their policies against harmful content.

That work has led to some of the most important First Amendment cases of the internet age, including one to be argued on Monday at the Supreme Court. That lawsuit, filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, accuses federal officials of colluding with or coercing the platforms to censor content critical of the government. The court’s decision, expected by June, could curtail the government’s latitude in monitoring content online.

The arguments strike at the heart of an unsettled question in modern American political life: In a world of unlimited online communications, in which anyone can reach huge numbers of people with unverified and false information, where is the line between protecting democracy and trampling on the right to free speech?

Even before the court rules, Mr. Trump’s allies have succeeded in paralyzing the Biden administration and the network of researchers who monitor disinformation.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department continue to monitor foreign disinformation, but the government has suspended virtually all cooperation with the social media platforms to address posts that originate in the United States.

“There’s just a chilling effect on all of this,” said Nina Jankowicz, a researcher who in 2022 briefly served as the executive director of a short-lived D.H.S. advisory board on disinformation. “Nobody wants to be caught up in it.”

Fighting the ‘interpretive battle’

For Mr. Trump, banishment from social media was debilitating. His posts had been central to his political success, as was the army of adherents who cheered his messages and rallied behind his effort to hold onto office after he lost.

“WE have to use TIKTOK!!” read a memo prepared for Mr. Trump’s lead lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, referring to a strategy to use social media to promote false messages about dead voters and vote-stealing software. “Content goes VIRAL here like no other platform!!!!! And there are MILLIONS of Trump supporters!”

After the violence on Jan. 6, Trump aides started working on how to “win the interpretive battle of the Trump history,” as one of them, Vincent Haley, had said in a previously unreported message found in the archives of the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack. That would be crucial “for success in 2022 and 2024,” he added.

Once out of office, Mr. Trump built his own social platform, Truth Social, and his aides created a network of new organizations to advance the Trump agenda — and to prepare for his return.

Mr. Miller, Mr. Trump’s top policy adviser , created America First Legal, a nonprofit, to take on, as its mission statement put it, “an unholy alliance of corrupt special interests, big tech titans, fake news media and liberal Washington politicians.”

He solicited funding from conservative donors, drawing on a $27 million contribution from the Bradley Impact Fund , which had financed a web of groups that pushed “voter fraud” conspiracies in 2020. Another $1.3 million came from the Conservative Partnership Institute, considered the nonprofit nerve center of the Trump movement.

A key focus would be what he perceived as bias against conservatives on social media. “When you see people being banned off of Twitter and Facebook and other platforms,” he said in January 2021, “what you are seeing is the fundamental erosion of the concept of liberty and freedom in America.”

Mr. Biden’s administration was moving in the other direction. He came into office determined to take a tougher line against misinformation online — in large part because it was seen as an obstacle to bringing the coronavirus pandemic under control. D.H.S. officials were focused on bolstering defenses against election lies, which clearly had failed ahead of Jan. 6.

In one respect, that was clearer cut than matters of public health. There have long been special legal protections against providing false information about where, when and how to vote or intentionally sowing public confusion , or fear, to suppress voting.

Social media, with its pipeline to tens of millions of voters, presented powerful new pathways for antidemocratic tactics, but with far fewer of the regulatory and legal limits that exist for television, radio and newspapers.

The pitfalls were also clear: During the 2020 campaign, platforms had rushed to bury a New York Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop out of concern that it might be tied to Russian interference. Conservatives saw it as an attempt to tilt the scales to Mr. Biden.

Administration officials said they were seeking a delicate balance between the First Amendment and social media’s rising power over public opinion.

“We’re in the business of critical infrastructure, and the most critical infrastructure is our cognitive infrastructure,” said Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, whose responsibilities include protecting the national voting system. “Building that resilience to misinformation and disinformation, I think, is incredibly important.”

In early 2022, D.H.S. announced its first major answer to the conundrum: the Disinformation Governance Board. The board would serve as an advisory body and help coordinate anti-disinformation efforts across the department’s bureaucracy, officials said. Its director was Ms. Jankowicz, an expert in Russian disinformation.

The announcement ignited a political firestorm that killed the board only weeks after it began operating. Both liberals and conservatives raised questions about its reach and the potential for abuse.

The fury was most intense on the right. Mr. Miller, speaking on Fox News, slammed it as “something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel.”

Ms. Jankowicz said that such attacks were distorting but acknowledged that the announcement had struck a nerve.

“I think any American, when you hear, ‘Oh, the administration, the White House, is setting up something to censor Americans,’ even if that has no shred of evidence behind it, your ears are really going to prick up,” she said.

A legal assault

Among those who took note was Eric Schmitt, then the attorney general of Missouri.

He and other attorneys general had been a forceful part of Mr. Trump’s legal campaign to overturn his defeat. Now, they would lend legal firepower to block the fight against disinformation.

In May 2022, Mr. Schmitt and Jeff Landry, then the attorney general of Louisiana and now the governor, sued dozens of federal officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, who had become a villain to many conservatives.

The lawsuit picked up where others had failed. Mr. Trump and others had sued Facebook and Twitter, but those challenges stalled as courts effectively ruled that the companies had a right to ban content on their sites. The new case, known as Missouri v. Biden, argued that companies were not just barring users — they were being coerced into doing so by government officials.

The attorneys general filed the lawsuit in the Western District of Louisiana, where it fell to Judge Terry A. Doughty, a Trump appointee who had built a reputation for blocking Biden administration policies.

“A lot of these lawsuits against social media companies themselves were just dying in the graveyard in the Northern District of California,” Mr. Schmitt, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022, said, referring to the liberal-leaning federal court in San Francisco. “And so our approach was a little bit different. We went directly at the government.”

The lawsuit was considered a long shot by experts, who noted that government officials were not issuing orders but urging the platforms to enforce their own policies. The decision to act was left to the companies, and more often than not, they did nothing.

Documents subpoenaed for the case showed extensive interactions between government officials and the platforms. In emails and text messages, people on both sides were alternately cooperative and confrontational. The platforms took seriously the administration’s complaints about content they said was misleading or false, but at the same time, they did not blindly carry out its bidding.

On Mr. Biden’s third day in office, a White House aide, Clarke Humphrey, wrote to Twitter flagging a post by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely suggesting that the death of Hank Aaron, the baseball legend, had been caused by the Covid-19 vaccines. She asked an executive at the platform to begin the process of removing the post “as soon as possible.”

The post is still up.

Reframing the debate

In August 2022, a new organization, the Foundation for Freedom Online, posted a report on its website called “Department of Homeland Censorship: How D.H.S. Seized Power Over Online Speech.”

The group’s founder, a little-known former White House official named Mike Benz, claimed to have firsthand knowledge of how federal officials were “coordinating mass censorship of the internet.”

At the heart of Mr. Benz’s theory was the Election Integrity Partnership, a group created in the summer of 2020 to supplement government efforts to combat misinformation about the election that year.

The idea came from a group of college interns at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA. The students suggested that research institutions could help track and flag posts that might violate the platforms’ standards, feeding the information into a portal open to the agency, state and local governments and the platforms.

The project ultimately involved Stanford University, the University of Washington, the National Conference on Citizenship, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and Graphika, a social media analytics firm. At its peak, it had 120 analysts, some of whom were college students.

It had what it considered successes, including spotting — and helping to stop — the spread of a false claim that a poll worker was burning Trump ballots in Erie, Pa. The approach could misfire, though. A separate, but related, CISA system flagged a tweet from a New York Times reporter accurately describing a printer problem at a voter center in Wisconsin, leading Twitter to affix an accuracy warning.

Decisions about whether to act remained with the platforms, which, in nearly two out of every three cases, did nothing.

In Mr. Benz’s telling, however, the government was using the partnership to get around the First Amendment, like outsourcing warfare to the private military contractor Blackwater.

Mr. Benz’s foundation for a time advertised itself as “a project of” Empower Oversight , a Republican group created by former Senate aides to support “whistle-blower” investigations.

Mr. Benz had previously lived a dual life. By day, he was a corporate lawyer in New York. In his off-hours, he toiled online under a social media avatar, Frame Game Radio, which railed against “the complete war on free speech” as it produced racist and antisemitic posts.

In videos and posts, Frame Game identified himself as a onetime member of the “Western chauvinist” group the Proud Boys, and as a Jew. Yet he blamed Jewish groups when he and others were suspended by social media companies. Warning about a looming demographic “white genocide,” Frame Game vented, “Anything pro white is called racist; anything white positive is racist.”

Mr. Benz did not respond to requests for comment. After NBC News first reported on Frame Game last fall, Mr. Benz called the account “a deradicalization project” to which he contributed in a “limited manner.” It was intended, he wrote on X, “by Jews to get people who hated Jews to stop hating Jews.”

Toward the end of 2018, Mr. Benz joined the Trump administration as a speechwriter for the housing and urban development secretary, Ben Carson. Mr. Benz’s posts were discovered by a colleague and brought to department management, according to a former official who insisted on anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.

As the election between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden heated up, he joined Mr. Miller’s speech-writing team at the White House. He was there through the early days of the effort to keep Mr. Trump in power, and was involved in the search for statistical anomalies that could purport to show election fraud, according to testimony and records collected by House investigators, some of which were first uncovered by Kristen Ruby, a social media and public relations strategist.

In late November 2020, Mr. Benz was abruptly moved to the State Department as a deputy assistant secretary for international communications and information policy. It is unclear precisely what he did in the role. Mr. Benz has since claimed that the job, which he held for less than two months, gave him his expertise in cyberpolicy.

Mr. Benz’s report gained national attention when a conservative website, Just the News, wrote about it in September 2022. Four days later, Mr. Schmitt’s office sent requests for records to the University of Washington and others demanding information about their contacts with the government.

Mr. Schmitt soon amended his lawsuit to include nearly five pages detailing Mr. Benz’s work and asserting a new, broader claim: Not only was the government exerting pressure on the platforms, but it was also effectively deputizing the private researchers “to evade First Amendment and other legal restrictions.”

The scheme, Mr. Benz said, had “ambitious sights for 2022 and 2024.”

‘An aha moment’

In October 2022, Mr. Musk completed his purchase of Twitter and vowed to make the platform a forum for unfettered debate.

He quickly reversed the barring of Mr. Trump — calling it “morally wrong” — and loosened rules that had caused the suspensions of many of his followers.

He also set out to prove that Twitter’s previous management had too willingly cooperated with government officials. He released internal company communications to a select group of writers, among them Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger.

The resulting project, which became known as the Twitter Files, began with an installment investigating Twitter’s decision to limit the reach of the Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

The author of that dispatch, Mr. Taibbi, concluded that Twitter had limited the coverage amid general warnings from the F.B.I. that Russia could leak hacked materials to try to influence the 2020 election. Though he was critical of previous leadership at Twitter, he reported that he saw no evidence of direct government involvement.

In March 2023, Mr. Benz joined the fray. Both Mr. Taibbi and Mr. Benz participated in a live discussion on Twitter, which was co-hosted by Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, an organizer of the Trump rally that preceded the riot on Jan. 6.

As Mr. Taibbi described his work, Mr. Benz jumped in: “I believe I have all of the missing pieces of the puzzle.”

There was a far broader “scale of censorship the world has never experienced before,” he told Mr. Taibbi, who made plans to follow up.

Later, Mr. Shellenberger said that connecting with Mr. Benz had led to “a big aha moment.”

“The clouds parted, and the sunlight burst through the sky,” he said on a podcast. “It’s like, oh, my gosh, this guy is way, way farther down the rabbit hole than we even knew the rabbit hole went.”

A platform in Congress

A week after that online meeting, Mr. Taibbi and Mr. Shellenberger appeared on Capitol Hill as star witnesses for the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Mr. Benz sat behind them, listening as they detailed parts of his central thesis: This was not an imperfect attempt to balance free speech with democratic rights but a state-sponsored thought-policing system.

Mr. Shellenberger titled his written testimony, “The Censorship Industrial Complex.”

The committee had been created immediately after Republicans took control of the House in 2023 with a mandate to investigate, among other things, the actions taken by social media companies against conservatives.

It was led by Mr. Jordan, a lawmaker who helped spearhead the attempt to block certification of Mr. Biden’s victory and who has since worked closely with Mr. Miller and America First Legal.

“There are subpoenas that are going out on a daily, weekly basis,” Mr. Miller told Fox News in the first days of Republican control of the House, showing familiarity with the committee’s strategy.

Mr. Jordan’s committee soon sought documents from all those involved in the Election Integrity Partnership, as well as scores of government agencies and private researchers.

Mr. Miller followed with his own federal lawsuit on behalf of private plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden, filing with D. John Sauer, the former solicitor general of Missouri who had led that case. (More recently, Mr. Sauer has represented Mr. Trump at the Supreme Court.)

Democrats in the House and legal experts questioned the collaboration as potentially unethical. Lawyers involved in the case have claimed that the subcommittee leaked selective parts of interviews conducted behind closed doors to America First Legal for use in its private lawsuits.

An amicus brief filed by the committee misrepresented facts and omitted evidence in ways that may have violated the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York wrote in a 46-page letter to Mr. Jordan.

A committee spokeswoman said the letter “deliberately misrepresents the evidence available to the committee to defend the Biden administration’s attacks on the First Amendment.”

The amicus brief, filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, was drafted by a lawyer at Mr. Miller’s legal foundation.

Mr. Miller did not respond to requests for comment.

A chilling effect

By the summer of 2023, the legal and political effort was having an impact.

The organizations involved in the Election Integrity Partnership faced an avalanche of requests and, if they balked, subpoenas for any emails, text messages or other information involving the government or social media companies dating to 2015.

Complying consumed time and money. The threat of legal action dried up funding from donors — which had included philanthropies, corporations and the government — and struck fear in researchers worried about facing legal action and political threats online for the work.

“You had a lot of organizations doing this research,” a senior analyst at one of them said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of fear of legal retribution. “Now, there are none.”

The Biden administration also found its hands tied. On July 4, 2023, Judge Doughty issued a sweeping injunction, saying that the government could not reach out to the platforms, or work with outside groups monitoring social media content, to address misinformation, except in a narrow set of circumstances.

The ruling went further than some of the plaintiffs in the Missouri case had expected. Judge Doughty even repeated an incorrect statistic first promoted by Mr. Benz: The partnership had flagged 22 million messages on Twitter alone, he wrote. In fact, it had flagged fewer than 5,000.

The Biden administration appealed.

While the judge said the administration could still take steps to stop foreign election interference or posts that mislead about voting requirements, it was unclear how it could without communicating “with social media companies on initiatives to prevent grave harm to the American people and our democratic processes,” the government asserted in its appeal.

In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit scaled the order back significantly, but still found the government had most likely overstepped the limits of the First Amendment. That sent the case to the Supreme Court, where justices recently expressed deep reservations about government intrusions in social media.

Ahead of the court’s decision, agencies across the government have virtually stopped communicating with social media companies, fearing the legal and political fallout as the presidential election approaches, according to several government officials who described the retreat on the condition of anonymity.

In a statement, Cait Conley, a senior adviser at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the department was still strengthening partnerships to fight “risks posed by foreign actors.” She did not address online threats at home.

The platforms have also backed off. Facebook and YouTube announced that they would reverse their restrictions on content claiming that the 2020 election was stolen. The torrent of disinformation that the previous efforts had slowed, though not stopped, has resumed with even greater force.

Hailing the end of “that halcyon period of the censorship industry,” Mr. Benz has found new celebrity, sitting for interviews with Tucker Carlson and Russell Brand. His conspiracy theories, like the one about the Pentagon’s use of Taylor Swift, have aired on Fox News and become talking points for many Republicans.

The biggest winner, arguably, has been Mr. Trump, who casts himself as victim and avenger of a vast plot to muzzle his movement.

Mr. Biden is “building the most sophisticated censorship and information control apparatus in the world,” Mr. Trump said in a campaign email last week, “to crush free speech in America.”

Glenn Thrush and Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.

Jim Rutenberg is a writer at large for The Times and The New York Times Magazine and writes most often about media and politics. More about Jim Rutenberg

Steven Lee Myers covers misinformation for The Times. He has worked in Washington, Moscow, Baghdad and Beijing, where he contributed to the articles that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2021. He is also the author of “The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin.” More about Steven Lee Myers

Our Coverage of the 2024 Elections

Presidential Race

President Biden raised $25 million  campaigning alongside Barack Obama and Bill Clinton  at a Radio City Music Hall event , and held a retreat the next day  for 175 major donors.

Donald Trump pushed his law-and-order message  at a wake for a police officer killed on duty.

Trump Media, now publicly traded, could present new conflicts of interest  in a second Trump term.

Donald Trump cast Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  as a liberal democrat  in disguise  while also seeming to back the independent presidential candidate as a spoiler for the Biden campaign.

Other Key Races

Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, abruptly ended her bid for U.S. Senate, a campaign flop that reflected intense national frustration with politics as usual .

Kari Lake, a Trump acolyte running for Senate in Arizona, is struggling to walk away from the controversial positions  that have turned off independents and alienated establishment Republicans.

Ohio will almost certainly go for Trump this November. Senator Sherrod Brown, the last Democrat holding statewide office, will need to defy the gravity of the presidential contest  to win a fourth term.

Advertisement

Mobile Menu Overlay

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden at a Campaign Event | New York,   NY

11:20 A.M. EDT   THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)  You’re incredible. You’re — really, you’re incredible. (Applause.)   Folks, please — please have a seat. Sit down.   I’m not going to take much of your time. I came to say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.    You know, one of — a couple of us have been doing this more than a year or two. (Laughter.) I don’t ever remember an event like last night. I’m not joking. Any — I don’t mean for us. I mean for anybody.    The enthusiasm, what you put together is just incredible — incredible. And, Julie, you deserve a lot of the credit. (Applause.)    Look, you know, it was good being with Barack and Bill. We’ve — I’ve worked with them a long, long time.    I was deeply involved in the Clinton administration all those years from the Senate.    And Barack — we — we sat together every morning at nine o’clock for eight years.  And, look, I — I couldn’t — I thought the way they — I thought — I was — I was impressed. (Laughter and applause.) I — I was.   I’m supposed to be — I’m supposed to be the guy out there — I’m the — I’m the president. I’m looking, “Holy God, they really mean it.” (Laughter.)    All kidding aside, let me — let me be clear. We’re here today because of Chris. It’s Chris’s birthday today. Where are you, Chris? (Applause.) Now, folks, Jill would — look at his glasses.  (Laughter.) That’s my birthday gift to him.    Let’s sing “Happy Birthday” to the man. (The President leads the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to Chris Korge.) (Applause.)   Chris, it’s hell turning 40, but you’ll get over it. (Laughter.)    Look, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Thank you for your support.  And, you know, it’s because of you I can say that we’ve raised more money than any previous Democratic campaign in history at this point. (Applause.)   And last night showed our skeptics, as well as our supporters — it showed the press; it showed everyone — that we are united. We’re a united party.    Your incredible enthusiasm — I’ve been seeing it all over the country. On a much smaller scale — as I’ve been going to all the — I’ve been to, I think, seven, eight, nine states in the last couple of weeks. And that’s the enthusiasm on the ground. That’s how people have been.    And it’s hard to come home and say that, because people look — well, you know, they read the polls, and they’re tight or they’re — we’re behind.    And, by the way, we’re ahead. (Applause.)   But we traveled to Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina.  Jill, Kamala and Doug, and I traveling as well. Look, it’s a — it’s just a lot of campaigning.   And our grassroots organization is really kick- — kicking up. Support keeps getting stronger.    Here’s the number that blows my mind: 1.5 million contributors so far — 1.5 million. (Applause.) Five hundred and fifty thousand of them brand-new contributors in the last couple of weeks — 550,000. (Applause.)   And guess what? 97 percent of all that is under 200 bucks.  (Applause.) I mean, if that ain’t grassroots, I don’t know what is.  And you’re all thinking, “Why didn’t we just contribute 200 bucks?” (Laughter.) I know you contributed a few bucks more than 200 bucks. (Laughter.)    But all kidding aside, what you’ve done is incredible.    We’re ramping up campaign headquarters and field offices, hiring staff all across the country before Trump and his MAGA Republicans have even opened one single office.    And, you know, while the press doesn’t write about it, we’ve been several — we have several national polls — and we’re leading — since the State of the Union Address. And I think you’re going to see a lot more coming. We’ve got to just keep this going.    But I know not everyone’s feeling the enthusiasm. Just the other day, a defeated-looking guy came up to me and said, “Mr. President, I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.  I need some help.” And I had to look at him and say, “Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.” (Laughter and applause.) It bro- — it broke my heart. For Catholics, this is Holy Week. I should have had something nicer to say. (Laughter.)    He really ask- — he recently asked the — the infamous question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Well, Donald, I’m glad you asked the question.  (Laughter.)    I hope everyone in this country takes a moment to think back to where you were in March of 2020.  And, you know, COVID led — came to America. Trump was president. He — he tried to downplay the whole virus. He tried to — he told us that it will go away. “Just stay calm. It will be gone by Easter.”   And, of course, we know from Bob Woodward’s book that Trump knew all along how dangerous it was. He just kept getting — and it kept getting worse.    He told Americans to inj- — remember he told them to inj- — just inject bleach. Inject —   AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)   THE PRESIDENT: I tell you what, man, I — and, you know, he told us just get a hit of body — hit — just hit your body with UV light.    Look, by the summer, Americans peacefully protested for justice in front of the White House. He wanted to tear-gas them.    And the guy who I can say, having worked with him a long time, is a first-rate guy — he threatened a commander in the United States military that he was — that he should be put in jail. And — no, I think — did he use word “shot” somewhere along the line?    Look, then after losing the 2020 election, he finished the presidency by sending a mob to attack Capitol Hill. I don’t want to repeat it all. You all know it as well as I do.    Four years later, look at how far we’ve come.    Donald Trump — Donald Trump is president in his mind.  (Laughter.) But the fact of the matter is I’m president; Kamala is a historic vice president — (applause) — because of you — because of you.   And COVID no longer controls our lives. Our economy is strong and getting stronger.    Good news today. Did you hear the — the GDP, inflation?  We’re on track, man. It has continuing to move.    We’ve reestablished American leadership in the world after he decided to walk away — I mean, literally, walk away from our responsibilities around the world with his new best friends.  He talks about he has love letters with Kim Jong Un, and talking about how Putin has — he’s a strong man, talking about how Hitler did some good things. I mean — I won’t even say it.   Of course, we have a lot more to do.    You know, but, folks, the problem isn’t just looking back where Trump had the country. The problem is: Look ahead where MAGA extremists would take the country if they win again.   Trump and MAGA extremists want to, quote, “terminate” — I love the phraseology he uses — “terminate” the ACA.  Hundreds of thousands of people would lose their insurance — millions, actually. He wants to get rid of savings that I just got put into law for prescription drug prices. He wants to change that whole piece.    We cannot — not allow Medicare to negotiate with the pharma for the drug — the price they’ll pay for the drugs. Prices like $35 insulin instead of $400 a month.   Look, and the last time he explored — when he was president, he talked about the national debt. He exploded the national debt at a greater degree than any president in American history.    And guess what? We’ve actually not done that. We’ve — have savings on that since we’ve been president.    Today, Trump recently said — he’s talked about cutting Social Security and Medicare.    You know, he brags about how he’s the reason why Roe v.  Wade was (inaudible) and — and eliminated. And, you know, he’s right. He is the reason, pushing as hard as he did to put — to change the Supreme Court.    And remember, at the time, we said, “What’s next: contraception, IVF?” We talked about what was going to come.     Well, it’s coming. It’s coming like a rainstorm.  And now he’s calling for a national ban in every single state — in every state.     Well, I tell you what, you guys elect me again and give me a little bit — a little more help in the Senate, we’re going to restore Roe v. Wade for the whole country. (Applause.)   You know, and he wants to undo everything we’ve done on climate. This guy doesn’t think climate change is real. We ought to put him right on the edge of the water so he can stay there while the climate change — changes.    Look, the greatest threat he poses is to our — is to our democracy. I don’t want to go on too long here. And it’s not hyperbole to use the word twice today. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that — that he is — he’s the most antidemocratic — with a small D — president in American history, at least since Lincoln’s era when they — the Civil War.    He embraces the violence of — of January the 6th. You know, and I — I had to go back and look at it because Mike Donilon pulled it out for me — the speech I made.    I was so upset he was remaining silent on January the 6th.  And I was president-elect, not president. But we had no president. He wasn’t acting.    And I went out and made a speech about — I was supposed to make a speech on the economy.  I made a speech on — on what was happening and what — what had to be done.  He did nothing. He sat in that little dining room off the Oval Office where I eat my lunch, and he watched it all. Didn’t do a damn thing. And now he’s running on it.    You know, if you look — turn on — on one of those channels that has — covers one of his — his rallies, he has the folks who are in jail singing — singing and doing the National Anthem, and he’s doing — I don’t know what the hell he’s doing. But he’s talking about how these guys in prison — he calls them “patriots.” And he says, if he’s reelected, he’s going to pardon them. He’s going to pardon them.    And, look, you know, I — I think I told you before, one of the most bracing moments I had as President of the United States so far was after I was sworn in. Right after I was sworn in, a week after, there was the G7. The leaders of the European — heads of European states met in London — outside of London, in England. And I sat down, and I said, “America is back.”    And — and the French President looked at me, and he said, “For how long?  For how long?” And the German Chancellor said, “Mr. President” — he said, “What would you say if tomorrow morning you woke up and you saw, in the London Times, headlines saying, ‘Thousands stormed the British Parliament, break down the doors of the House of — the House, in order to be able to stop the outcome of an election’?”   What would you think? What would we all think? It put in perspective for me how the rest of the world looks at what happened here.    We are — like it or not, we are the country the rest of the world looks to for stability. And that’s not hyperbole. That’s a fact.  That’s an actual fact.    And Trump says if he loses again — again in November, there will be a “bloodbath.” What the hell is with this guy? No, I’m — I’m not — no, I’m really serious. It concerns me the most.    I told you I have — one of the reasons, as Barack said the other night, that he asked me to be vice president was because I had a lot of experience in foreign policy as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and I knew most of the heads of state.    And — but whether it’s the G20 meeting in — in India or whatever the meeting where there are other heads of state, I am not exaggerating when I say — and I say it in front of the press without giving the names — almost every one of the world leaders finds an excuse to get me alone for a moment, put their hand on my arm, and say, “You can’t let him win.”  “My” — meaning his country or her country — “my democracy is at stake. My democracy is at stake.”    And, again, it’s not an exaggeration. Think about it. This is a guy who walked away from NATO. Th- — told Putin he could do whatever he wants if they’re not paying their dues. As I said, he’s working — talks about — anyway —   Just — just look at what he’s done. The rest of the world is wondering what in the hell is happening to us. And they’re relieved, not because I’m so special but that I’m not Trump.  I’m serious. I wish it was because they thought Biden was such a wonderful guy. (Laughter.)   I think they respect me. I think they listen to me. But the point is, it’s because they’re scared to death for their countries if he were to win again.    This “America First” stuff has really worked well, hasn’t it?     Look, we have to say with one voice, as Americans — Democrats, independents, Republicans — there is no place ever for political violence, for physical violence in our political system. None. Never.    And you can’t only — (applause) — and, folks, you can’t only be for your country when you win. You know, we’ve lost, we’ve won, we’ve lost. That’s the democratic process.    Let me close with this. There’s a lot of focus these days on how old Trump and I are. Well — (laughs) — I shouldn’t say — I won’t say it. (Laughter.)   But the real question is — is —   AUDIENCE MEMBER: Say it. Say it.   THE PRESIDENT: (Laughs.) Anyway, I — (laughter). Were it not for the fact it’s Good Friday, I might say it. (Laughter.)   Anyway, look, you know, the question is: How old are our ideas? How old are our ideas? Donald Trump’s vision for America is based on a cont- — a completely different value set than ours. His — he — his focus is on anger and hate, revenge and retribution — some of the oldest ideas of humankind.    And, by the way, if I said that to you — if I said that a year ago, I’d have been — even wonder whether that was an exaggeration.  But think of all the Republicans you know that are decent members of the Senate and the House who are caving.  Why? It doesn’t show any courage, but they know there’s retribution. He’s convinced them all that if he somehow wins, they’re going to be an object of his attention.    I have a different vision for America, like all of you do, one that focuses on the future and answers some really important questions. Will we be better off four years from now? That’s our goal: Make it better. We ma- — I think we made it a hell of a lot better than it was four years ago, but we got to make it a hell of a lot better still. (Applause.)   Here’s the kind of future I see — summarize it real quickly. I see a future where we defend democracy; we don’t dismiss it or diminish it.    I see a future where the right to choose — where we protect our freedoms, not take them away — is paramount to everything we’re about.    I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and we restore the Child Tax Credit and we provide health- — home healthcare. Because guess what? That grows the economy.  That doesn’t diminish the econ- — it grows the economy.    You know, I know I got criticized because I’m so pro labor. I’m pro labor because they’re the best workers in the world. (Applause.) No —    And I asked the Treasury Department to do an analysis for me: what the effect of more labor in the marketplace had on the economy. And they said everyone, across the board — labor and non-labor — benefits.    I met — I think — I know we talked a while ago, when we were talking, you and I. We talked about how I met with the Business Roundtable, and they asked me, you know, why — why was I pro labor. Why have I talked about it so much? And I pointed out to them — I said, because, you know, I met with — when I — the former Secretary of Commerce and I, when — in the — in the Obama administration, we met and — with you guys, and we went through the first 357 — well, not first — but 357 of the Fortune 500.   And we asked, “What’s the thing you most need?” You know what they said? They said they need a better — a better-trained workforce.    And I pointed out — and, you know, (inaudible) I want you to go back to think about this.    They — what we talked about was: If, in fact, you had — you know, everybody thinks, you know — you say, “I want to be an electrician.”  “Okay, you’re an electrician.” Five years — five years of apprenticeship — five — F-I-V-E.    Any of these trades, they’re the best in the world. They’re the best in the world. That’s how I was able to track back over $55 billion in — in investment in infrastruct- — in the Intel stuff.    You know, those little computer chips are the — about the size of the end of my little finger. We invented them. We made them. And we lost — we lost the whole market.    Well, guess what?  They’re coming home. They’re coming home not just because of us — (applause).    And, by the way, I made a commitment early on — and some thought it was too much — but I would make a point and a — and we don’t need to do anything beyond this. I made a commitment, as long as I’m President, no one making under $400,000 would pay an extra penny in taxes. And they haven’t. (Applause.) We’ve actually — actually cut the taxes.   And, folks, I see a future where there’s — you know, where we save the planet from a climate crisis and from gun violence.  We have the capacity to do both those things.    And above all, I see a future for all Americans — a future that can — that we can build together.    Look, we badly need to win this.    I’m going on too long. I’m sorry. You have a long day and evening, but, you know — (applause) — I think it’s time for us to redouble our efforts. And I know we can.    I’ve never been more — and I mean this sincerely. Some of you know me really well. And the bad news is no one now doubts what I — mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean. (Laughter.) More than once. (Laughter.)   But I — I give you my word as a Biden, I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. We have a chance. We have a chance to change the next six decades.    And we’re in one of those inflection points in human history. They occur about every six or seven generations.    We just went through the post-war period. It worked pretty damn well until things began to change.    When I met with Putin after I was elected, in Geneva, I looked at him, and he talked about — he wanted to do something. I said, “What are you going to do about methane?” I said, “You — you have — you’re in eight time zones around the Arctic Circle, and methane is” — he had no idea. He didn’t have the slightest notion what he could do, and he knows there’s a problem.    Well, we know the problems are out there, but we know how to solve them if we work together. Not just —   But everything is changing. I’ve never seen a time in my career — which is short, I know, but — (laughter) — I’ve never seen a time where there’s as much movement in the world.    Think of all the nations that are reestablishing and reassessing where they are, what they think, how they’re going to react, what they’re going to do.    And so, folks, we have to remember — we have to remember who we are. I say this all the time, and I think — people think it’s hyperbole, but it’s not. We’re the United States of America. We’re the only nation in the world that I can — as a student of history — can find that’s come out of every crisis we’ve met head on stronger than we went in– every single time.    There’s nothing beyond our capacity. I really mean it. There’s nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.    So, folks, you know, when I ran the first time, I — you were all gracious. You’re the — by the way, you — this room is the reason I’m standing here. Not — that’s not hyperbole, either.  This room is the reason I’m standing here.  Almost every one of you were with me from the very beginning.    And I said — when I said why I was running — they asked me why I was running. I said, “For three reasons. One, to restore the soul of America.” And I meant it. We can’t be a nation espousing a value set that’s contrary to everything we believe.  Just decency.    Did you ever think you’d ride down a street or in a rural area and see a — a Trump flag with the middle of it saying, “F Biden,” and a little kids standing there, giving you the middle finger, standing with their parents? What are we — I don’t mi- — I believe — I don’t blame them for being mad at me. That’s fine. They can — they can want to defeat me.    But think how we’ve diminished the dialogue. What are we doing? What the hell are we doing to our children?   You know, the pandemic has extracted a big price from us, from this society. One million people dead. Didn’t have to be that high. Didn’t have to be that.    We came in, we got to work, and finished it.    But here’s the deal. I was speaking with Vivek Murthy, our Surgeon General that I appointed. He talks about the mental health problems that exist in the country as a consequence of this. For every single person who passed away, the estimates are there’s 8 to 10 people who are profoundly affected — mother, father, son, daughter, husband, wife. And it’s had a profound effect.   Well, folks, we can overcome all of this. We really can. And I think it just — and the world is looking for us to lead.    I don’t want to — you know, everybody says, “Well, why are you putting the burden on us?” Because it’s who we are.    We’re the most unique country in the world. Last comment, I promise. The most unique country in the world. Every other country is organized based upon ethnicity, geography, religion.  It’s a — but we’re the only country based on an idea. It’s not — it’s not a joke. An idea.    We’ve never fully lived up to it, but we’ve never walked away.  The idea is we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Like — we’ve never lived up to it, but we’ve never walked away from it. We’ve never walked away from it.    That’s why the rest of the world looks at us the way they do. That’s why we have so much influence.    And as long as I’m your president, we’re not going to give up that influence.    God bless you all.    Thanks for everything.  (Applause.) 11:44 A.M. EDT

Stay Connected

We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better.

Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Cash-strapped Trump is now selling $60 Bibles, U.S. Constitution included

Rachel Treisman

Then-President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., during a controversial 2020 photo-op. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Then-President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., during a controversial 2020 photo-op.

Former President Donald Trump is bringing together church and state in a gilded package for his latest venture, a $60 "God Bless The USA" Bible complete with copies of the nation's founding documents.

Trump announced the launch of the leather-bound, large-print, King James Bible in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday — a day after the social media company surged in its trading debut and two days after a New York appeals court extended his bond deadline to comply with a ruling in a civil fraud case and slashed the bond amount by 61%.

"Happy Holy Week! Let's Make America Pray Again," Trump wrote. "As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible."

Consider This from NPR

Why trump's persecution narrative resonates with christian supporters.

The Bible is inspired by "God Bless the USA," the patriotic Lee Greenwood anthem that has been a fixture at many a Trump rally (and has a long political history dating back to Ronald Reagan). It is the only Bible endorsed by Trump as well as Greenwood, according to its promotional website .

The Bible is only available online and sells for $59.99 (considerably more expensive than the traditional Bibles sold at major retailers, or those available for free at many churches and hotels). It includes Greenwood's handwritten chorus of its titular song as well as copies of historical documents including the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance.

"Many of you have never read them and don't know the liberties and rights you have as Americans, and how you are being threatened to lose those rights," Trump said in a three-minute video advertisement.

"Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast."

'You gotta be tough': White evangelicals remain enthusiastic about Donald Trump

Trump critics on both sides of the aisle quickly criticized the product, characterizing it as self-serving and hypocritical.

Conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes slammed him for "commodifying the Bible during Holy Week," while Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota critiqued him for "literally taking a holy book and selling it, and putting it out there in order to make money for his campaign."

Trump says the money isn't going to his campaign, but more on that below.

Klobuchar added that Trump's public attacks on others are "not consistent with the teachings of the Bible," calling this "one more moment of hypocrisy." Tara Setmayer, a senior adviser for anti-Trump Republican PAC the Lincoln Project, called it "blasphemous ."

And former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, trolled Trump with a social media post alluding to his alleged extramarital affairs.

"Happy Holy Week, Donald," she wrote. "Instead of selling Bibles, you should probably buy one. And read it, including Exodus 20:14 ."

Christianity is an increasingly prominent part of his campaign

Trump has made a point of cultivating Christian supporters since his 2016 presidential campaign and remains popular with white evangelicals despite his multiple divorces, insults toward marginalized groups and allegations of extramarital affairs and sexual assault.

And his narrative of being persecuted — including in the courts — appears to resonate with his many Christian supporters.

Trump has increasingly embraced Christian nationalist ideas in public. He promised a convention of religious broadcasters last month that he would use a second term to defend Christian values from the "radical left," swearing that "no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration."

He made similar comments in the Bible promotional video, in which he warned that "Christians are under siege" and the country is "going haywire" because it lost religion.

What to know about the debut of Trump's $399 golden, high-top sneakers

"We must defend God in the public square and not allow the media or the left-wing groups to silence, censor or discriminate against us," he said. "We have to bring Christianity back into our lives and back into what will be again a great nation."

Trump himself is not known to be particularly religious or a regular churchgoer. He long identified as Presbyterian but announced in 2020 that he identified as nondenominational .

A Pew Research Center survey released earlier this month found that most people with positive views of Trump don't see him as especially religious, but think he stands up for people with religious beliefs like their own.

Trump said in the promotional video that he has many Bibles at home.

"It's my favorite book," he said, echoing a comment he's made in previous years. "It's a lot of people's favorite book."

The Impact Of Christian Nationalism On American Democracy

Trump's relationship to the Bible has been a point of discussion and sometimes controversy over the years.

In 2020, amid protests over George Floyd's murder, he posed with a Bible outside a Washington, D.C., church, for which he was widely criticized. U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops had tear-gassed peaceful protesters in the area beforehand, seemingly to make way for the photo-op, though a watchdog report the following year determined otherwise .

That same year, a clip of a 2015 Bloomberg interview, in which Trump declines to name his favorite — or any — Bible verse resurfaced on social media and went viral.

Bible sales are unlikely to solve Trump's financial problems

An FAQ section on the Bible website says no profits will go to Trump's reelection campaign.

"GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign," it says.

However, the site adds that it uses Trump's name, likeness and image "under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC."

Trump is listed as the manager, president, secretary and treasurer of CIC Ventures LLC in a financial disclosure from last year.

Here's what happens if Trump can't pay his $454 million bond

Trump's sales pitch focuses on bringing religion back to America.

"I want to have a lot of people have it," he said at one point in the video. "You have to have it for your heart and for your soul."

But many are wondering whether Trump has something else to gain from Bible sales while facing under mounting financial pressure.

There's his presidential reelection campaign, which has raised only about half of what Biden's has so far this cycle. Trump acknowledged Monday that he "might" spend his own money on his campaign, something he hasn't done since 2016.

There's also his mounting legal expenses, as he faces four criminal indictments and numerous civil cases. Trump posted bond to support a $83.3 million jury award granted to writer E. Jean Carroll in a defamation case earlier this month, and was due to put up another $454 million in a civil fraud case this past Monday.

Trump is on the verge of a windfall of billions of dollars. Here are 3 things to know

His lawyers had said last week that they had approached 30 companies for help making bond, but doing so was a "practical impossibility" — prompting New York's attorney general to confirm that if Trump did not pay, she would move to seize his assets . On Monday, the appeals court reduced the bond amount to $175 million and gave Trump another 10 days to post it.

Trump has evidently been trying to raise money in other ways.

The day after the civil fraud judgment was announced, he debuted a line of $399 golden, high-top sneakers , which sold out in hours . The company behind his social media app, Truth Social, started trading on the Nasdaq exchange on Tuesday, which could deliver him a windfall of more than $3 billion — though he can't sell his shares for another six months.

• Donald J. Trump
• sales pitch
• Christianity

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• This Or That Game New
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Education and Communications
• Communication Skills
• Public Speaking

A Guide to Writing School Speeches: Structure, Delivery, & More

Last Updated: September 19, 2023 Fact Checked

• Brainstorming
• Writing & Structure

Sample Speeches

This article was written by Lynn Kirkham and by wikiHow staff writer, Finn Kobler . Lynn Kirkham is a Professional Public Speaker and Founder of Yes You Can Speak, a San Francisco Bay Area-based public speaking educational business empowering thousands of professionals to take command of whatever stage they've been given - from job interviews, boardroom talks to TEDx and large conference platforms. Lynn was chosen as the official TEDx Berkeley speaker coach for the last four years and has worked with executives at Google, Facebook, Intuit, Genentech, Intel, VMware, and others. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,070,962 times.

If you’re running for office in school elections, delivering your candidate speech can be one of the most important parts of the whole process. And you can’t deliver a good speech without writing a good speech. Sure, there are templates online that you can just paste in your name into, but a speech written by you, that represents you, holds a much better chance of making an impact on your classmates/voters. In this article, we’ll walk you through expert advice on crafting a speech that’s clear and concise, as well as some public speaking tips to help you resonate with your audience. The true power of your speech will come from how you personalize it, but consider this a comprehensive blueprint to help you get started. This article is based on an interview with our professional public speaker, Lynn Kirkham, founder of Yes You Can Speak. Check out the full interview here.

Things You Should Know

• Begin your speech by stating who you are, the position you’re running for, and a catchy slogan that reminds the audience what you’re working towards.
• Use the middle of your speech to explain your goals, if elected, and give a few specific steps on how you plan to achieve those goals.
• Keep your speech short and sweet; most school election speeches are only about 150-250 words.

Crafting Your Message

• For example, you might begin your brainstorming sesh with goals like “outlaw homework” and “allow skateboarding on campus.” Then, as you condense your ideas, you’ll become more realistic with plans like adding healthy food options at lunch, expanding a tutoring program, or working to reduce bullying.

• Your slogan can be lighthearted (“The Right Manuel for the Job”) or serious (“Your Voice for Change”).
• It can be focused on one specific issue (“Save the Spring Formal”) or aimed more broadly (“Let’s Fly Higher Together”). Most importantly, the slogan should make people think of you when they hear or see it, and give them an idea of how you’ll serve their interests.
• When writing a slogan , avoid negative language. You want to sound confident in yourself, rather than unconfident in your opponents.
• For example, if you’re trying to come up with a treasurer campaign slogan, you might say “A Vote for Maggie Makes Cents” or “Bank on Hank” rather than “Lyle Can’t Be Trusted With Money” or “Vote Hank, Not Celia.”

• A great way to show your qualifications and personalize your speech (without sounding like you’re blowing your own horn) is to tell a story. Talk about what made you want to run for office.
• For example, if you’re looking for FFA (Future Farmers of America) speech ideas, you might write “I’ve been working with animals since I was a kid and it taught me so much about life. I want to inspire other young people to do the same.”

• It can help to write down some key traits you possess and build your speech from there. For example, if you write “hardworking,” you could use your speech to talk about the countless hours of effort you plan to put into this job.
• If you write down “empathetic,” you can talk about how you understand people’s point-of-view and, if you’re elected, you’ll make sure everyone feels listened to.
• It can be difficult knowing how you come across. If you don’t know what your key traits are, ask your friends how they see you. They’ll be positive yet realistic.

• Avoid complicated sentences, jargon, or unnecessary asides. While your skill with language may work well in essays, now is the time to connect with an audience in words they can easily understand.
• As you draft your speech, read each sentence aloud after writing it. If it sounds awkward, clunky, or overly complex, revise it in simpler terms.

Structuring Your Speech

• Something simple like “Hi. I’m Jane Thomas, and I want to be your class president because I am dedicated to Making Butler High Better Together” is a highly effective way to begin.
• Try to tweak your introduction to match your personality. You could say “Some people say that Leon Lawson is too wild and not serious enough to be vice-president. Well, I’m Leon Lawson, and I say that I’m Seriously Wild about shaking things up in Key Club.”

• For instance, you might say “Bullying is an epidemic at Adams High School. Odds are that you have been bullied, seen someone being bullied, or even been a bully yourself. We can all do better.”
• Asking the audience can be a helpful tactic to connect over an issue. You might say “Raise your hand if you’ve been grossed out by the condition of our school bathrooms.”
• When stating the issue, avoid negative comments, or blaming a particular person or group. Instead of “Principal Stevens has done nothing to help with school lunches,” you might say “I hope to work with Principal Stevens to develop a plan so all our students are fed.”

• Be as precise as you can when explaining how you plan on accomplishing your mission. Instead of “I will unite the student body” (which is vague and unrealistic), you might say “I will create an open forum for students that meets every Friday at lunch so we can all share our ideas as a team.”
• Use active verbs to describe what you have done/will do. Some examples include: “pursue,” “follow,” “take up,” “initiate,” “present,” “represent,” “create,” “build,” and “lead.”
• If you’re running for re-election or have held a different office, talk about a few things you have done and a few you will do. Make it clear how they all link together. For example, you might say "As my work as President of Spanish Club shows, I can manage a team of people to achieve common goals. I will use this experience to pursue change in Student Government, too."

• To improve the ethos of your speech, find ways to connect yourself to the position you’re running for. Market yourself by listing your relevant experience and how you’ve prepared. For example, you might say “I’m secretary of 2 other clubs, so I can easily transition to secretary of Bible Club.”
• To improve the pathos of your speech, find moments to show off your personality. Are you goofy, fun-loving, sincere? Let that shine through in your language. You might add a joke or use some vivid adjectives.
• To improve the logos of your speech, make sure your goals are well-connected and realistic. Clearly explain why it’s reasonable for you to achieve each of your plans during your time in office.

• Even if you don’t have a short time limit, people rarely complain that speeches are too short. Don’t waste time on unreasonable promises or unnecessary details.

• For example: “We all know that there are too many cliques and factions that divide us as students here at West Branch High. This Friday, please consider voting for me, Ben Davis, for student council. I’ll make it my number one job to bring all West Branch Eagles together so we can Fly High as One.”

• For example, you might say “I have several additional ideas for ways to bring back Tiger pride to our school. I would love to hear your ideas too after class.”

Rehearsing Your Speech

• If you’re allowed to, practice giving your speech in the location where you’ll actually be presenting it. Get a feel for the room and the podium, so you’ll be that much more comfortable come speech day.

• If you can memorize your speech, great, but you don’t want it to sound like you’re just regurgitating words from a page. Know the speech by heart, so that you can seamlessly adjust to a misstated phrase or an unexpected opportunity to connect with the crowd.

• It can help to meditate before your speech and picture yourself getting a standing ovation (or whatever the best possible scenario is for you).
• Rely on whatever relaxation techniques work for you to get ready for your performance. If that means employing the old trick of imagining the audience naked, go for it — maybe just watch who you tell about having used it!

Delivering Your Speech

• Smiling throughout the entirety of your speech is an easy way to appear warm and confident without much effort.
• If you use hand gestures while you speak, be sure they’re not excessively distracting and keep your use of them limited. Appropriate hand gestures can help you engage your audience.

• You don’t necessarily have to make direct eye contact with any specific person. Just make it clear you’re trying to connect with your audience.

• If you make a mistake while giving your speech, don't panic. Laugh it off and move on. This will show that you are flexible and adaptable, and will encourage others to see you as someone who can meet challenges without losing her cool.

Community Q&A

• If you're very nervous before presenting the speech, try looking just above the heads of the audience or focus on a person that does not make you nervous, like a friend. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• If you don't win, it's okay! Know you gave it your all and tried your hardest. There's tons of other opportunities to showing great leadership. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/brainstorming/
• ↑ https://passport.vec.vic.gov.au/students/vote
• ↑ https://library.centre.edu/POL120Fall2019
• ↑ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/02/tips-speaking
• ↑ https://finley-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/doe/sws/schools/f/finley-h/localcontent/how_to_write_a_speech.pdf
• ↑ https://www.comm.pitt.edu/structuring-speech
• ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/process/reverseoutlines/
• ↑ https://www.lsu.edu/hss/english/files/university_writing_files/item35402.pdf
• ↑ https://pll.harvard.edu/course/rhetoric-art-persuasive-writing-and-public-speaking
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conclusions/
• ↑ https://hbr.org/2013/10/the-power-of-restraint-always-leave-them-wanting-more

About This Article

If you need to write a speech for school elections, think about what you would like to accomplish while you’re in office, then narrow that down to 1 or 2 goals. Next, come up with a catchy election slogan. Open your speech by introducing yourself and your message, giving a few details about why you’re the right person for the position. Include your slogan early in the speech, then identify your main goal and outline your clear, realistic plan for accomplishing those goals. End with a strong statement that tells the other students why they should vote for you. Keep reading for tips from our reviewer on delivering your election speech! Did this summary help you? Yes No

• Send fan mail to authors

Reader Success Stories

Tracy Gardana

Jul 5, 2021

Did this article help you?

Sapphire Etienne

May 3, 2018

Apr 14, 2019

Jul 23, 2016

Heather Wan

Feb 26, 2017

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

wikiHow Tech Help Pro:

Develop the tech skills you need for work and life

In Self-Deprecating Return to ‘The Daily Show’, Jon Stewart Beats His Critics to the Punch: TV Review

By Alison Herman

Alison Herman

• HBO’s ‘Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show’ Examines the Comedian’s Coming Out With Uncomfortable Intimacy: TV Review 3 days ago
• ‘X-Men ’97’ Is a Worthy Follow-Up to the Beloved Animated Series: TV Review 2 weeks ago
• Netflix Brings Music Satire ‘Girls5eva’ Back From the Dead for a Well-Deserved Season 3: TV Review 3 weeks ago

These similarities are lost on no one, least of all Stewart himself. Apart from an extended runtime and a quick appearance by former correspondent Jordan Klepper, there was little to announce tonight’s episode as a major event or break from routine. From the monologue to the staged “field” segment to the interview to the Moment of Zen, the run of show proceeded as usual — or rather, as it usually did until 2015, the last time Stewart occupied the chair. The primary feeling was not of triumphant return or even nostalgia, but déjà vu. For long stretches, it was as if Stewart had never made an abortive attempt at an animated news show for HBO, nor made an Emmy-nominated series for Apple TV+ until the tech company flinched at potential controversy . You could almost believe Stewart had stayed fixed in the seat where he still clearly feels comfortable, cuing up montages of news clips and grimacing at political gaffes.

Until, that is, Stewart used himself as an example. For nearly 20 minutes, the comedian expounded on the absurdity of a rematch between two men who had already been the oldest presidential candidates in American history. Then he turned to the camera. “Look at me,” he urged. “Look what time hath wrought.” Despite being decades younger than either Trump or Biden, Stewart could still recognize the obvious joke: politicians aren’t the only ones who have problems passing the torch.

Jokes at Stewart’s expense helped to dispel the initial awkwardness, but they don’t resolve the fundamental tension underlying everything from the election to Bob Iger’s second stint at Disney to Stewart’s own full-circle moment. We’re at a crossroads where systems are stuck in a loop, running their own expired playbooks to increasingly diminished returns. “The Daily Show” itself runs on a network with increasingly little original programming, owned by a conglomerate frantically searching for a new owner as its value grows progressively smaller. Bringing Stewart back is a momentary bright spot, but there’s still another three days a week of episodes to fill. What are those going to look like, and for how long until a longer-term solution comes along — if it ever does?

Anyone who has living memories of the War on Terror is powerless to resist Stewart’s particular blend of cynicism and moral righteousness. Yet the lack of pomp and circumstance around his return means that its meta aspects become the most meaningful. Stewart could mock Biden’s fraying faculties or point out Trump’s infinite shortcomings in his sleep. It’s not the punchlines themselves that help demonstrate the snake-eating-its-tail absurdity of the current news cycle. It’s the man delivering them, and how many times we’ve seen him before.

More From Our Brands

On fiji’s vomo island, warm vibes precede a slice of local life (and luxury), heesen’s most powerful superyacht yet comes with a remote-controlled rescue buoy, sphere leads sports stocks in march as dolan more than doubles stake, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, vanderpump villa: how to stream the pump rules spinoff online, verify it's you, please log in.

3 presidents, celebrity performances and protester interruptions at Biden campaign's $26M fundraiser

President Joe Biden was joined Thursday by two of his Democratic predecessors for a star-studded fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall that his campaign said brought in more than $26 million.

Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton participated in the event in New York with more than 5,000 supporters in attendance — including several protesters who interrupted the program when the three presidents were speaking.

Actor and comedian Mindy Kaling hosted the program, which ended at around 10 p.m., and late night host Stephen Colbert moderated a conversation with Biden, Clinton and Obama. Special guests include celebrities like Queen Latifah, Lizzo , Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele.

During the nearly hourlong moderated conversation, Colbert joked that the moment was historic because “three presidents have come to New York, and not one of them to appear in court,” taking a jab at former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictments and civil trials.

Clinton also took a swipe at Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, arguing that he "had a good couple of years because he stole them from Barack Obama.”

But the discussion was interrupted at least five times by protesters. Colbert acknowledged one protester and asked Biden about the U.S. role in ensuring a peaceful and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Biden said more needed to be done to get relief into Gaza but added that Israel's very existence was at stake.

"There has to be a train for a two-state solution," Biden said. "It doesn’t have to carry today. There has to be a progression. And I think we can do that."

His response was met with a standing ovation and chants of "four more years."

Obama sternly addressed a protester when he was interrupted, saying, "You can’t just talk and not listen."

"That’s part of democracy," Obama added. "Part of democracy is not just talking. It’s listening. That’s what the other side does, and it is important for us to understand that it is possible to have moral clarity and have deeply held beliefs but still recognize that the world is complicated and it is hard to solve these problems."

The crowd erupted in applause.

Biden’s team has taken steps to minimize disruptions , including making events smaller and withholding exact locations longer than usual, after a speech in January when pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted him about a dozen times.

Outside the New York venue Thursday, more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters chanted slogans like “Biden, Biden, you’re a liar,” and waved Palestinian flags and signs with anti-war messages.

The group Abandon Biden encouraged people to protest the president during his visit over the White House’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

“We cannot idly sit by as our president aides and abets genocide in Gaza,” the group’s New York co-chair Mosaab Sadia said in a statement. “The movement to Abandon Biden is only just beginning.”

Inside Radio City Music Hall, the novelty of having three presidents in the same room was not lost on attendees.

Earlier in the program, Kaling joked about having Biden, Obama and Clinton in the same room, saying that when someone shouts “Mr. President,” three people turn around.

Ticket prices started at $250, but the largest contributions shot up to half a million dollars. Some of the biggest donors were to have their pictures taken with all three presidents by photographer Annie Leibovitz.

First lady Jill Biden called the program “the fundraiser to end all fundraisers.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also delivered remarks.

For the three presidents, the fundraiser capped off a day of mobilization efforts that included sitting for an interview with the podcast "SmartLess," which the White House said would be available at a later, unspecified date.

They also sat for a discussion with Biden's campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, which was streamed to grassroots donors. The presidents talked about re-election efforts — both Clinton and Obama served two terms — as well as lighter topics, like favorite ice cream favors.

"You're all part of an incredible team we're building, and we're just getting started," Biden said in his closing message during the discussion. "So let's keep going. Let's win this November."

The trio arrived at Radio City Music Hall together in "The Beast" — the president’s car in the motorcade.

Biden also invited Obama to ride in The Beast after he landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where they enjoyed catching up on their personal and professional lives, an aide to Obama told NBC News.

The show of unity among Biden, Clinton and Obama stands in stark contrast to Trump, who faces opposition from members of his own administration , including former Vice President Mike Pence , as he seeks a return to the White House in November.

Former President George W. Bush — the only other Republican former president — declined to support Trump in 2020.

The Trump campaign has not held a major event since March 16. Earlier Thursday, Trump attended the wake for a New York police officer who was shot and killed in Queens on Monday.

Biden and Trump are polling neck-and-neck, with 46% of voters supporting Trump and 45% supporting Biden, according to a March poll by CNBC . That poll, however, had Trump leading Biden by 30 percentage points when respondents were asked which candidate was the best on economic issues.

During Thursday's moderated discussion, Colbert asked Clinton what he would say to voters who do not feel like the economy is strong. Clinton answered that the 2008 recession and Covid are still affecting voters and that Trump did not sustain economic growth spurred by Obama. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have methodically "put Humpty Dumpty back together again," Clinton said.

"We should not make 2016's mistake again," he added, referring to when Trump defeated his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Mike Memoli is an NBC News correspondent. 

Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Book of Donald: Trump hawks special ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles for $60

Former president sells Trump-endorsed Bible in concert with Lee Greenwood, country singer whose music is played at his rallies

Patriotic, prayerful and rightwing Americans are being offered the chance to purchase – for a mere $59.99 – a Bible endorsed by Donald Trump , in the latest example of the former US president touting wares to the American public.

In a post to his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, the current presumptive Republican nominee and 88-times charged criminal defendant said : “Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible.”

In an accompanying video message, Trump said : “I’m proud to be partnering with my very good friend Lee Greenwood – who doesn’t love his song God Bless the USA? – in connection with promoting the God Bless the USA Bible.”

Greenwood, a country singer whose signature tune is played at Trump rallies, is offering the Bibles for sale through a website, GodBlessTheUSABible.com.

The site features a picture of Trump smiling broadly and holding a Bible in front of his red-and-white-striped club tie. The cover of the Bible is embossed with the words “Holy Bible” and “God Bless the USA” and a design based on the US flag.

Greenwood’s website says the Bible is the only one endorsed by Trump, counsels buyers on what to do if their Bible has “sticky pages”, and answers the important question on many peoples’ minds: “Is any of the money from this Bible going to the Donald J Trump campaign for president?”

“No,” the site says. “GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not political and has nothing to do with any political campaign. GodBlessTheUSABible.com is not owned, managed or controlled by Donald J Trump, the Trump Organization, CIC Ventures LLC or any of their respective principals or affiliates.

“GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”

CIC Ventures was established in 2021 by a former Trump aide and a Trump-linked lawyer in Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump has lived since leaving power. Its principal address is that of Trump International Golf Club. The company has also been involved in Trump-themed money making schemes including digital training cards and gold sneakers.

Given Trump’s status as a thrice-married legally adjudicated rapist and billionaire New York property magnate nonetheless dependent on evangelical Christian support , his true relationship with and knowledge of the Bible has long been a subject of speculation.

In June 2020, towards the end of his presidency, he memorably marched out of the White House, across a square violently cleared of protesters for racial justice, and posed outside the historic St John’s church while holding a Bible in the air.

A reporter asked: “Is that your Bible?”

Trump said: “It’s a Bible.”

after newsletter promotion

In his video on Tuesday, Trump said: “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and we have to bring them back fast. I think it’s one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire. We’ve lost religion in our country. All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many.”

In response, Gregory Minchak, of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, commented : “There’s not a cross nor a picture of Jesus on the page, but plenty of photos of Trump. Who do you think this $60 Bible is for? It sure isn’t for Jesus.”

Sarafina Chitika, a senior Biden campaign spokesperson, issued a stinging statement.

“The last time the American people saw Donald Trump hold up a Bible,” she said, “it was for a photo op after he teargassed American citizens demonstrating against white supremacy.

“He can’t be bothered to leave Mar-a-Lago to meet with actual voters, but found the time to hawk bootleg sneakers, sell cheap perfume and promote his ‘new’ product to line his own pockets.

“It’s classic Donald Trump – a fraud who has spent his life scamming people and his presidency screwing over the middle class and cutting taxes for his rich friends.”

• Donald Trump
• Republicans
• Politics books
• Christianity

Most viewed

More From Forbes

What trump’s 100% auto tariff proposal would mean for the u.s. economy.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

CHANGFENG, CHINA - JUNE 30: The first vehicle, a Qin Plus DM-i sedan, rolls off the assembly line at ... [+] BYD's new manufacturing base on June 30, 2022. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Corrected, March 28, 2024 : A earlier version of this article erroneously reported where BYD makes EVs and how many it sells in the U.S. The firm is considering plans to build an EV plant in Mexico but does not produce vehicles there. A spokesman says it sells no vehicles in the U.S.

In a recent campaign speech, former President Donald Trump vowed , “We're going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected.”

Trump was not clear in that March 17 speech about the target of his tariffs. But what would the consequences be of a 100% tax on imported autos?

Conflicting Plans

It could be catastrophic. At a time when so many people worry about inflation, past experience with other goods suggests a tariff likely would drive up the cost of motor vehicles, domestic as well as imports, used cars as well as new. And rather than add jobs, as Trump insists, these tariffs likely would send thousands of U.S. workers to the unemployment line .

In his March 17 speech, he implied he’d levy the 100% import tax only on Chinese nameplate vehicles made in Mexico. But, while the world’s top seller of electric vehicles, Chinese automaker BYD, is considering plans to produce electric vehicles in Mexico. It currently sells none in the U.S.

Best Tax Software Of 2022

Best tax software for the self-employed of 2022, income tax calculator: estimate your taxes.

At other times, Trump proposed very different import taxes, Bloomberg News explained. He’s promised a 10% tariff on all imported goods, a 50% tariff on all imported Chinese cars, and a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods. Listen to this recent CNBC interview for Trump’s own explanation of how he views tariffs.

It also is not clear whether Trump would tax imports of autos only or also include component parts. The 25% tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese steel imports in 2018 did target materials used to manufacture other products and it seems reasonable to assume any new levy would do the same.

A Complex Supply Chain

What would a tariff on imported autos and parts mean?

Remember, the U.S. auto industry relies on a complex supply chain. Cars assembled by American workers in the U.S. are built with parts from all over the world , especially Mexico and Canada but also China and other countries.

About one-quarter of cars and light trucks purchased in the U.S. are imports, per Haver Analytics data. More than half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. are built by foreign nameplate firms such as Toyota, BMW, or Hyundai. But the National Automobile Dealers Association adds that 44% of them are assembled in the U.S. from a mix of foreign and domestic parts. And often, these brands use fewer foreign parts than U.S.-headquartered automakers.

For example, in 2023, the average domestic content of Hondas was about 67%, while on average about 52% of the components in Ford vehicles were made in the U.S. , according to American University’s Made In America Auto Index.

At the same time, the U.S. exports about 77,000 autos and $70 billion in parts to other countries. The biggest component buyers are Mexico, Canada, and—perhaps surprisingly—China. Thus, many imported vehicles are built with some U.S.-made parts.

More Inflation, Fewer Jobs

What would the economic impact of auto tariffs look like? Immediately, a 100% tariff on imported vehicles would come close to doubling their price since most of the tax would be passed on to consumers.

But that would just be the beginning. Domestic producers likely would take the opportunity to raise their own prices, even before figuring in their higher costs from tariffs on the overseas parts they need to assemble their vehicles.

In addition, the jobs of many of the 1 million American workers who manufacture vehicles and parts and the 1.2 million employed by auto dealerships would be at risk.

Then, there is what would happen after U.S. trading partners impose retaliatory tariffs on American imports, which they almost certainly would. Such an ugly trade war would result in still-higher U.S. consumer prices and many lost jobs.

Because Trump’s proposals are vague, no one has figured their impact yet on U.S. employment. But 2018’s more modest 25% tariff on imported steel cost as many as 175,000 U.S. jobs, according to some academic estimates . And they reduced net U.S. income by more than $7 billion, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper .

Economic Uncertainty

Could U.S. firms open new domestic factories to make components and build cars, as Trump hopes? Sure, but it would take years. Besides, big price increases could cause auto sales to collapse, making firms reluctant to make capital investments. Overall, the enormous economic uncertainty such a tariff would create could slow investment well beyond the auto industry.

We don’t know precisely what trade policies Trump would adopt if he returned to the White House. But one thing is certain: A 100% tariff on imported autos would create an economic disaster for U.S. consumers and thousands of workers.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions