Words Used at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions

From left, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images;
J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Speakers at the Democratic National Convention used more than 109,000 words over four days in Chicago this week. Their choice of words and phrases contrasts the themes and ideas of last month’s Republican National Convention.

Excluding common and routine words, the most frequently spoken words at the Democratic convention were:

A similar number of words were spoken at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last month, with speakers using more than 110,000 words over four days. The most common were:

Words From Notable Speakers

Former President Donald J. Trump’s acceptance speech was longer and used more than three times as many words as Vice President Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech.

Circles show the number of times these keynote speakers used the following words.

Joseph R. Biden Jr.	Tim Walz	Kamala Harris	Words	Donald J. Trump	JD Vance
			WORDS
10	–	2	Democracy	2	–
6	8	11	Freedom	3	–
7	1	3	Economy, economic	13	4
2	1	5	Business	2	6
15	4	2	Job(s)	22	8
8	2	5	Tax(es)	21	1
4	–	7	Law	1	4
7	3	2	God	9	5
13	5	9	Love	22	14
1	–	–	Inflation	14	1
2	8	1	Neighbor, neighborhood	–	–
7	7	8	Family	8	10
2	–	5	Father	4	1
2	–	13	Mother	4	1
1	1	4	Abortion	–	–
4	1	2	Medicare	4	–
2	2	2	Social Security	4	1
23	4	15	Trump	8	16
2	1	3	Biden	2	12
10	9	2	Kamala	–	2
3	10	3	Harris	–	2
5	–	7	Border	21	2
2	–	2	Immigrant, immigration	5	1
–	–	–	Invasion	13	1
–	–	–	Illegal aliens	4	1
6	1	2	War	17	3
1	–	2	Ukraine	4	–
2	–	3	Russia	9	–
2	–	2	Putin	–	–
1	–	1	China, Chinese	14	5
–	–	4	Israel	4	–
3	–	3	Gaza	–	–
–	–	1	Hamas	–	–
–	–	2	Terrorist	1	–
–	–	2	Iran	8	–
–	–	–	Afghanistan	4	1

Photographs by Mandel Ngan/AFP (Biden); Will Oliver/EPA, via Shutterstock (Walz); J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press (Harris) and Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Divided Words

Many words were spoken frequently at both conventions, including “America,” “country,” “people” and “vote.” But the frequency of other words was less balanced.

Speakers at the Democratic convention leaned into words about liberty and patriotism, mentioning “freedom” 227 times compared with 67 times at the Republican convention. Words like “woman,” “joy” and “weird” were also used more often by Democratic speakers.

Republican speakers mentioned “inflation” seven times as often as Democrats, and both “God” and the price of “groceries” three times as often. Republicans used the word “assassination” or “assassin” 18 times, but the word was heard only once at the Democratic convention, and it was not a reference to the sniper attack on Mr. Trump in July.

Missing Words

Some words and phrases that appear in transcripts of the Democratic convention but not at all in Republican transcripts include “abortion,” “Project 2025” and “convicted felon.”

In contrast, some words from the Republican convention that were not heard this week in Chicago include “indoctrination,” “illegal aliens” and “invasion.”