Analyzing the Language Used by Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and 51 Other Politicians

In 21st-century politics, popularity comes down to a little of what you do, a little of what you say — and a whole lot of how you say it.

When Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election weeks after telling Americans he doesn’t “talk as smoothly” as he used to, he set up a battle between two candidates known for their unique rhetorical style.

In one corner stood Donald Trump, whose “hit first, think later” persuasion skills were honed across years in real estate and reality TV and whose peculiar brand of “rizz” caused a political shock eight years previously. And in the other stood former top prosecutor Kamala Harris. Her word salads and malapropisms drew comparisons to Veep’s vapid careerist Selena Meyer. But Harris’s “vibes” are a powerful shield in a political arena where women are penalized for showing the same anger as their male counterparts.

The effects of the language and sentiment of rhetoric can be both subtle and revolutionary. They depend much on who is speaking, who they are addressing and the broader socio-political context. Studies have shown that the public turns to angry, authoritarian speakers in moments of perceived social breakdown. At the same time, politicians tend to use calmer, sophisticated sentences when addressing each other in low-profile parliamentary scenarios.

To understand the role that words play in politics, the team here at WordTips analyzed the language of the 53 most prominent politicians in the U.S. and UK, studying the words used across hundreds of transcripts and focusing on instances where their dialogue was least likely to have been pre-written. 

Key Findings

• Ted Cruz has the largest vocabulary among prominent U.S. and UK politicians, using an average of 484.9 unique words per thousand.
• Tim Walz’s speech has the lowest stress levels of any prominent U.S. or UK politician, with just 5.45% of his responses or statements showing signs of stress.
• Reform is the UK’s most stressed political party, according to speech analysis of the UK’s most prominent politicians.
• Michael Gove is the UK’s most positive top politician, with 40.00% of his utterances being positive.

Ted Cruz Has Biggest Vocabulary in U.S. Politics

Using 484.9 unique words per 1,000, Republican Senator Ted Cruz has the largest vocabulary among top U.S. politicians. Although known for the creative descriptions others concoct for him, Cruz has used the resources of his own word bank to level criticism at Trump’s speeches across the years — causing searches for the word “incendiary” to spike in 2016, just weeks after coining the neologism “Trumpertantrum.”

Curiously, Tim Walz (411.3), Donald Trump (408.9) and J.D. Vance (401.6) are sandwiched together among the top U.S. politicians with the smallest vocabularies, while Kamala Harris is mid-table with 426.6.

Former Secretary of State has UK’s Largest Vocabulary

With word choices from the playful (“Tofu-eating wokerati”) to the inflammatory (“The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast”), Conservative MP Suella Braverman’s vocabulary finally got her sacked from her role as Secretary of State in November 2023. 

Braverman’s description of peaceful anti-genocide protests as “hate marches” and homelessness as a “lifestyle choice” earned her the nickname Cruella from the British press and raised “very significant concerns” in her own party. Braverman uses 480.5 unique words per 1,000, more than any other top UK politician.

Tim Walz is America’s Least Stressed Politician — But It’s Complicated

AI speech analysis of leading politicians’ speeches shows that 30.86% of Mitt Romney’s statements and responses show signs of stress — making him America’s most stressed prominent politician. The two-time presidential candidate has long known the power of emotive speaking, and even admitted to deliberately provoking audience booing during speeches to demonstrate his strength. (Conversely, during the same campaign, Obama made notable use of jokes to provoke an audience response.)

Tim Walz is something of a contradiction. Known for his folksy, laidback demeanor, Walz is the calmest figure in American politics, with only 5.45% of his statements appearing stressed — significantly less than the second calmest speaker, Mike Pence (12.50%). But glimpses of Walz’s inner turmoil suggest something more complex, from his nervous body language during the VP debate to his free use of curse words. In both cases, these slips may convince voters that whatever his faults, Walz is authentic: swearing can come off “more emotionally realistic than measured speech,” says Emma Byrne, author of Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language.

Gove and Braverman are Coolest Characters in UK Politics

Conservatives Michael Gove (5.56%) and Suella Braverman (6.25%) are the UK’s least stressed politicians. Despite her “inflammatory” statements (see Former Secretary of State has UK’s Largest Vocabulary, above), Braverman is known for her matter-of-factness, and her unflustered nature has drawn comparisons with Donald Trump. 

“I would love to (see) a front page of The Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda. That’s my dream. That’s my obsession,” she said of her plan to deport refugees. Her resignation announcement in 2023 — “I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility: I resign” — was pointedly cooler than the last gasps of Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was to resign the following day.

Trump Among Most Positive Political Speakers, Harris Among the Neutrals

Finally, we used an AI algorithm to calculate the percentage of each politician’s statements and responses that were positive, negative or neutral in sentiment. We found that, on the whole, Democrats are likely to be more positive and less negative than Republicans and also to be neutral 4.72% more of the time.

The most negative politicians, by a fair leap of around 12% or more, are Mike Pence (65.63%) and Ted Cruz (64.67%). The most positive are Dean Phillips (33.89%) and Nancy Pelosi (30.32%), with Donald Trump (26.57%) in third place; Kamala Harris is the fourth most neutral (42.49%). As a populist and provocateur with a flexible relationship with the truth, Trump succeeds in motivating a passionate political following regardless of the actual content. One study of his social media posts found that Trump “manages to elicit positive emotions, including ‘love,’ despite delivering seemingly antagonistic messages.”

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Is Negative on Balance

Labour MP Rachel Reeves is the UK’s most negative top politician, according to analysis of her unwritten speeches. Stepping up as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2024, Reeves has had to balance not just the books but the electorate’s expectations as the new Labour government inherited the country’s “worst set of circumstances since the Second World War,” as she put it. Cautious negative language abounds: “I know that not everyone in this hall or in the country will agree with every decision that I make. But I will not duck those decisions, not for political expediency, not for personal advantage… I did not take those decisions lightly, I will never take the responsibility of this office lightly."

At the other end of the scale, former Conservative minister Michael Gove is not only the UK’s least stressed politician (see above) but also the most upbeat. Some 40% of Gove’s statements are positive — such as, “Yes, cocaine,” and “The book is correct, I did take drugs.”

Voices of Reason

In an age of influencers and social media, everybody has a voice, however tiny. The fact that a hashtag can change the world or you could go to jail over a social media post goes to show how words have power — to fight injustice or incite violence, to build a movement or to spread disinformation. Positivity and a rich vocabulary may be used to stir the worst in people, while blunt negativity can hold those abusing power to account. Meanwhile, it’s on the audience to divine the meaning and content behind the words, and the intention behind the whole package.

Methodology

First, we built a list of the 53 most prominent politicians in the United States and the United Kingdom based on data from YouGov on the most famous politicians in each country in 2024.

We then sourced transcripts for all politicians, focusing on instances where their dialogue was least likely to have been pre-written. For example, we avoided speeches and public statements but favored interviews.

Lastly, we analyzed the language used by all 53 politicians following three different methods:

1. We assessed the size of the vocabulary of each politician by calculating the number of unique words used per 1,000 words.
2. We assessed the sentiment of each politician's dialogue, using a natural language processing AI algorithm (HuggingFace) to calculate the % of interventions (E.g., responses to an interviewer's questions) that expressed positive, negative or neutral sentiment.
3. We assessed politicians’ stress levels by calculating the percentage of stressed interventions for each politician with an AI tool that detects emotional stress in language. 

For each metric, we also calculated the average values for the different political parties based on the data across all the politicians for each party.

This language analysis was completed in October 2024.

Portrait Sources

Most of the photos used in the designs are official portraits available in the public domain. Images were sourced from the Wikimedia Foundation and the Parliamentary Digital Service. The portrait of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 by Gage Skidmore. The photo of Sadiq Khan is licensed under CC BY 2.0 by Chabad Lubavitch.