FDR’s election gave Americans hope for the first time in years because he promised to create programs to support Americans. When he was elected for the first time in 1933, the severe consequences of the Great Depression were being felt by many Americans. Millions of people were unemployed and others lost their savings, after hundreds of banks had to close their doors. In order to put an end to that devastating depression, FDR conceived a very comprehensive, yet experimental, rescue program known as the New Deal, which entailed social and economic measures (from the provision of cash and jobs to the most needed ones to the reform of the banking sector) aimed at supporting Americans in their struggle to get out of the Great Depression.