He called for better prices for farmers and public works programs, supported by a more inflationary monetary policy.

He later turned against Roosevelt and the Democratic Party and bitterly criticized the New Deal by supporting such figures as Father Coughlin.

[2] Reno's public persona is largely shaped by his leadership of the Farmers' Holiday Association, a Depression-era organization of farmers based in the Midwest that campaigned for populist measures including currency inflation, agricultural production, prices controls, and an end to foreclosures, including by forcibly preventing auctions of foreclosed farms.

In October 1933, in reaction against the federal Agricultural Adjustment Act, Reno led the call for a "farm strike" until the demands were met.

On October 30, this call received the support of the governors of North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.