Stump Speech in the United States

Stump Speech (in Politics)

Related to political science, the following is a definition of Stump Speech in the U.S. practice of politics: A stump speech is a standard campaign speech used by someone running for public office.

The term derives from the early American custom in which candidates campaigned from town to town and stood upon a sawed off tree stump to deliver their speech. Because a candidate might hit many towns in a single day, he typically used the same speech in each place and customized the beginning to include specific mentions of local officials and supporters.