 While Tompkins and his supporters primarily campaigned through the state's newspapers, most of which supported the Anti-Relief faction, Desha traveled the state making stump speeches.Offering no specific platform, he focused exclusively on the idea that he opposed "judicial usurpation" and believed "all power belonged to the people".He was generally acknowledged as the candidate of the Relief Party, but historian Arndt M. Stickles has noted that he used Anti-Relief rhetoric in some counties.