ROY SHINAR COHEN
The initial excitement of Kamala Harris’s candidacy has set the tone for the 2024 presidential campaign. With less than two months until election day, both Harris and Trump have told their story to the American people. However, they have said much less about what they will do if elected. While Trump has put forward some policies (despite claiming ignorance of Project 2025), Harris’s policy agenda remains somewhat vague, with only a broad outline discernible from her speeches and interviews. Yet it is clear that on many issues she has veered to the right from her past positions and the Biden administration, attempting to reach crucial voters in swing states.
Throughout August Harris worked to define herself as a candidate, most notably at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The DNC included speeches by a long list of party leaders and influential figures. It began with President Biden and Representative Ocasio-Cortez on the first day, continued with the Obamas, Clintons, governors and elected officials on the second and third days. The Convention concluded with Harris’s speech on the fourth day, which was watched by 28.9 million viewers, half a million more than Trump’s speech during the Republican convention.
Harris’s speech was described by The New York Times’s columnist Ezra Klein as “reverse engineered” to appeal to crucial voters. As was widely noticed by Klein and others, this was true throughout the convention, as Harris and her party resolved to create a more moderate platform which could appeal to a wide coalition of voters. Yet, it gave little indication of what the presidential candidate would do if she won. So far Harris and her running-mate Tim Walz laid out a vague outline for policy priorities during speeches and interviews.
The Harris campaign revealed policies that align with voters’ priorities for this election. According to polling by Statista and YouGov, there are large differences in policy priorities between Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Democratic voters think the most important issues to date are (in descending order) healthcare and abortions, inflation and prices, climate change, and civil rights. Republican voters, however, feel strongly that inflation and prices are the most important issues, closely followed by immigration. So, it is not surprising that a large part of Harris’s plan addresses the economy, immigration, and reproductive freedom, which appeal to the voters she wants to convince.
An overview of these policies indicates that Harris is steering away from a distinctly progressive agenda, as her campaign attempts to court the moderate voters of the Democratic party and beyond. This is most evidenced by the policies Harris has not yet endorsed — such as the Green New Deal or stopping arms sales to Israel — as well as by those she has endorsed, most notably regarding immigration. These policies are strategically picked to increase her odds of winning in a very tight election.
Harris has outlined a set of economic policies that were widely seen as radical by pundits and Republicans. But, as Nobel Prize economist Paul Krugman wrote, “Harris staked out a moderately centre-left position, not too different from President Biden’s original Build Back Better agenda”. This includes taking aim at high prices, increasing the housing supply, lowering the cost of raising children, and using tax credits to assist the lower and middle class.
Harris proposed using the taxes to reduce prices. These policies include an expanded child tax credit and tax cuts for lower-income and middle-income parents to ease the high cost of raising children; a $25,000 tax cut for first-time home buyers; and avoiding new taxes on low-earners. Additionally, she promised to build three million new homes across the country to address the current shortage. Finally, she has supported higher taxes on large corporations and the richest Americans.
On immigration, Harris has veered to the right and has taken a stronger stance than Biden. She supports a bipartisan bill that focuses on the national security consequences of large numbers of immigrants entering the United States unlawfully. Yet, upon hearing about this bill, Trump made sure Republicans rejected it, although the senate had already reached a bipartisan agreement. Analysts speculated that Trump feared the bill would solve a major part of the immigration challenges that the US faces and, consequently, would no longer be a major issue in the elections. By supporting this bill Harris draws a sharp contrast to Trump and presents herself in a less partisan manner.
When it comes to healthcare, Harris builds on the Biden administration’s efforts to reduce prescription drug costs. She wants to continue the $35 monthly cap on insulin prices and the $2,000 annual limit on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs to all Americans. Additionally, Harris is a strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights and has been the Biden administration’s foremost spokesperson on the issue since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Notably, she promised to sign into law a bill “to restore reproductive freedoms” during a campaign event in Georgia.
Harris has not revealed the specifics of her foreign policy, but she has sketched a broad picture of the US’s role on the international stage. During her speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), she discussed a handful of foreign policy issues, including NATO and the Ukraine War, the Gaza War, Iran and North Korea. Harris promised that she would “ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world” and that “America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership”. Moreover, she claimed credit for helping mobilise global support for Ukraine and vowed to continue doing so.
When it comes to the Gaza War, Harris has emphasised that she and Biden are working to “end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination”. Her plea to support Palestinian rights attracted loud applause from the DNC crowd, demonstrating her fellow Democrats’ support for Palestine. We might expect the Democratic Party to influence her stance towards demanding and creating the conditions for a cease-fire.
Still, Harris has been criticised for her view on Israel. She has vowed to “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself” and “ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself”. Importantly, Harris’s stance on this matter has not diverged from President Biden’s policy, but some analysts hope that she would strike a different balance than him.
Harris’s policy agenda does not yet cover every aspect of the presidency, leaving voters wondering what President Harris would actually do. However, she may be tempted to avoid giving more details and ride the “vibes wave” through to November. With fewer than 60 days left, Harris and Walz are leaning into their joyful image while casting Trump and Vance as “weird”. The Harris-Walz campaign is expanding its efforts, reaching voters, and capitalising on the cultural power of their platform—and according to the polls, it’s working.
