What makes a good political speech? 

While there are no official rules to what makes effective political speeches, most follow a few key ideas.

Good speeches often:  

• Present a single argument or vision and repeat that vision throughout the speech

• Tell a story with a beginning, middle and end 

• Use precise or exact language 

• Use imagery, examples or a personal story 

• Inject some humor and lightheartedness 

• Use an inspiring or positive tone 

Take a look at some of these American political speeches to better understand how politicians talk to citizens, and also to get some ideas for your speech. 

Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention, 2024

While Ms. Obama has never run for a political office, she was the First Lady when her husband, Barack Obama, was president from 2009-2016. Though she’s never been elected, she gave a political speech at the Democratic National Convention earlier this year. 

In this speech, notice how the former First Lady takes one phrase, “Do Something”—and weaves it throughout her speech. “Do Something” is used as a simple phrase to inspire Americans to become civically involved, including voting, volunteering and bringing positive change to communities. 

“If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules, so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.”

Nikki Haley at the Republican National Convention, 2024

Earlier this year, Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, was running for the Republican presidential nomination against former President Donald Trump. But without much support from voters, Ms. Haley dropped out of the race. 

In this speech at the Republican National Convention earlier this year, notice how Ms. Haley uses negatives and turns them into a positive, when endorsing her adversary, former President Trump. She highlights the areas they disagreed, then focuses on areas where they do agree to persuade voters to vote for Trump. While there were lots of areas where she and Trump disagreed, “we agree on making America safe, and keeping America strong,” she said. 

“We should acknowledge that there are some Americans who don’t agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time. I happen to know some of them, and I want to speak to them tonight. My message to them is simple. You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him. Take it from me. I haven’t always agreed with President Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree.”

President Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural speech, 1981

When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, America had been suffering from economic problems like unemployment, gas shortages and inflation. 

Reagan’s inauguration speech used simple, everyday language to get his message across. He doesn’t spend any time on personal stories or emotional language at the beginning of the speech, often used to draw listeners in. Instead, Reagan gets right to his message: the way the government operates is going to change. His sentences are short and easy to understand, and he keeps flowery language and big words to a minimum. 

“We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow,” was his straightforward message to citizens. 

“You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding: We are going to begin to act, beginning today.”

Compare/contrast: tone and rhythm 

Politicians’ speeches are known not just for what they say, but how they say it. The tone of someone’s voice, whether their voice stays on the same note, or goes up and down, makes a difference in how listeners feel.

Take a look at these two very different tones in these speeches: Former President Barack Obama in 2009, and former President Harry Truman in 1946. 

President Obama’s speeches were well-known for their rhythm and tone—repeating words and phrases for emphasis that often sound like music, reminding listeners of ministers from the Black church, or civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. 

“This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands:  youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together.”

Harry Truman, who grew up in the Midwest in the early 20th Century, had a very different tone. Instead of using imagery and personal stories to persuade listeners, his approach is much more direct and honest—his tone is almost a monotone, it doesn’t sail up and down but stays in place. His rhythm is clipped instead of musical, and Truman chooses to emphasize the words of his speech without emotion. 

“The American people stand firm in the faith which has inspired this Nation from the beginning. We believe that all men have a right to equal justice under law and equal opportunity to share in the common good. We believe that all men have a right to freedom of thought and expression. We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God. From this faith we will not be moved.”

Mitt Romney’s presidential stump speech, New Hampshire, 2012

When former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was running against Barack Obama for the presidency in 2012, his stump speeches—the ones he gave on the campaign trail in different states—focused on one thing: voters had a choice to make between him and the current president.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000001249362/mitt-romneys-iowa-stump-speech.html

His speeches used the compare and contrast technique, taking the laws and policies Obama had done as president, and comparing and contrasting them to how differently he would do it when he was president. 

“Obama says he wants to fundamentally transform America” Romney says in this speech, “but I want to restore America to our founding principles.”  

“Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and Change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama? You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”

Jennifer Pierotti Lim at the Democratic Convention, 2016

In 2016, lifelong Republican Jennifer Pierotti Lim decided to break with her political party and vote for the opposite party’s candidate—in this case Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic nominee for president in 2016. 

In her political speech in support of Clinton, Pierotti Lin uses the element of surprise, often saying the opposite of what the audience expects her to say, to persuade listeners. 

“We’re not just Democrats and Republicans, we’re Americans,” she says. 

“When it comes to campaigning, I have done it all: phone banked voters and knocked on so many doors. I bet a lot of you did the same. One difference though: I campaigned exclusively for the GOP…until this election. I've voted Republican my entire life. I believe in the bedrock values of the Republican Party: liberty, equality, and the idea that there are individual rights that cannot be taken away. These are values to be proud of. And because the Republican party has abandoned those values this year, this Republican is voting for Hillary Clinton.”

Vocabulary: 

Inaugural • Rhetoric • Inspire • Motivate  • Language • Tone • Monotone • Rhythm • Precise  • Imagery • Convention  • Unemployment • Inflation  • Stump speech

Learn more: 

* Check out every American presidential Inaugural Address from George Washington to Joe Biden, from The American Presidency Project 
* The 10 Most Famous Inaugural Addresses, The Washington Post, 2013 

* How to Write a Political Campaign Speech, by political consultant Jay Townsend (not sure about this one, but it was actually pretty good!)
* How to write a persuasive speech, National Speech and Debate Association