Work in progress — cycles are added one at a time. Every quote is machine-verified against an archived source; follow the links to read it.
| Score | Cycle | Candidate | Issue | Position |
|---|
| 0.38 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Planned use of land and retirement of marginal farmland | Support a sound program to divert land from unprofitable to profitable use |
| 0.35 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | National Prohibition | Resubmit the Eighteenth Amendment so each state may decide, with constitutional guarantees against the saloon and against interference with dry states; enforce the law meanwhile |
| 0.34 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Federal responsibility for relief | Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole |
| 0.29 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Politics and patronage in relief administration | Relief will continue, but purged of politics, administered locally on merit, with economies taken from 'the political exploiters' |
| 0.28 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Federal responsibility for relief | A $5 billion federal appropriation for immediate relief of those in need |
| 0.28 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Public works as employment policy | A $5 billion federal public-works program — roads, reforestation, slum clearance, workers' housing — and idle factories and land turned over to the unemployed |
| 0.27 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Housing and slum clearance | Slum clearance and modern housing for the urban poor as a "human necessity" among public works |
| 0.27 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Conservation of natural resources | Conserve natural resources, including antitrust revision to end waste in oil, coal and timber |
| 0.26 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Federal youth work and education programs (CCC, NYA) | Continue help for young people to obtain an education and a chance to use it |
| 0.26 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Unemployment insurance | Compulsory unemployment insurance funded by employers and by higher income and inheritance taxes |
| 0.25 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Farm prices and agricultural surplus | Restore purchasing power to the farming half of the nation |
| 0.25 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Planned use of land and retirement of marginal farmland | A national policy of planned land use — economic soil survey and retirement of marginal farmland |
| 0.25 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Regulation of banks and securities | Reform the banking laws; stop credit flowing to speculation; relieve depositors of closed banks |
| 0.24 | 1936 | Norman Thomas | Public ownership of major industries | The New Deal 'has not worked'; build the cooperative commonwealth |
| 0.23 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Amending the Constitution to enlarge (or restrain) federal power | Wages, hours and child labor by State law and interstate compact -- and a constitutional amendment giving the States power if the courts forbid |
| 0.23 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Adherence to the World Court | Join the World Court with reservations; make the Kellogg-Briand Pact an instrument for consultation — but no commitments to use force |
| 0.23 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Farm and home mortgage relief | The Federal Home Loan Bank system to stop home foreclosures and finance new homes |
| 0.22 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Who deserves credit for recovery (defense of record) | Recovery came from raising purchasing power at the bottom, not 'trickle down' |
| 0.22 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Federal responsibility for relief | Federal leadership in distress relief — federal credit to states whose resources are exhausted |
| 0.22 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Public ownership of major industries | Transfer the principal industries — banking, natural resources, utilities — to social ownership by compensation, not confiscation |
| 0.21 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Neutrality, arms embargoes and staying out of foreign wars | Promote peace by all honorable means; no League, no World Court, no plan that could involve the U.S. in a war it had no part in beginning |
| 0.21 | 1932 | Alfred E. Smith | National Prohibition | Outright repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment — the issue Roosevelt was downplaying |
| 0.21 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Concentrated economic power vs. the average citizen (rhetorical framing) | Take power from the 'economic royalists': the mandate of 1932 is to end economic tyranny |
| 0.20 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Veterans' bonus and benefits | Oppose cash prepayment of the veterans' bonus, especially by fiat money |
| 0.20 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Right to organize and bargain collectively | Government as umpire and mediator; develop conciliation instead of rushing disputes to the President's doorstep |