His adventure in the north proved to be successful and he returned to Polk County with enough gold to purchase a farm in Milltown, Wisconsin, where he worked throughout his life as a small-scale dairy farmer.

[2] At the time of his 1936 campaign for Vice President of the United States, Nelson's farm consisted of 180 acres (0.73 km2), which supported 20 cows and produced various small crops.

Nelson spent much of the 1936 campaign traveling across the midsection of the country, speaking in Minnesota and Indiana to labor and farmer groups in early July before addressing an anticipated crowd of 25,000 at the Wisconsin state picnic mid-month.

[7] The end of July saw Nelson making campaign stops in Illinois, where he spoke on behalf of John Fisher, the Socialist Party's candidate for governor.

[10] Nelson was a bitter opponent of the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act, a centerpiece of the New Deal's efforts to support American farmers by cutting production to raise market prices.

He declared from the stump on the campaign trail: "We farmers were asked to ship 6 million little pigs to fertilizer plants — not to slaughter houses.

Nelson then immediately departed for another "Socialist city," making his first appearance on the same platform as SPA Presidential nominee Thomas at a "monster rally" held in Reading, Pennsylvania, on August 30.

[11] October saw Nelson's return to the Midwest, where he spoke across the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri[12] before heading for Kansas and Oklahoma.

Giant portraits of Norman Thomas and George Nelson flanked the stage, with a 40-foot (12 m) tall banner of a hand-and-torch — a Socialist Party emblem — immediately behind the rostrum.

Nelson's call for America to continue "the pioneering spirit of our forefathers" towards a socialist reorganization of society drew a mighty cheer from the gathering.