One political speech tactic I've heard a lot recently which doesn't work for me is the reference to some person the politician met on the campaign trail. Here's an example from Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic Convention:

I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism. She didn’t have any health insurance, and she discovered she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head, painted with my name on it, and asked me to fight for health care for her and her children.

I will always remember the young man in a Marine Corps T-shirt who waited months for medical care. And he said to me, “Take care of my buddies. A lot of them are still over there. And then will you please take care of me?