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Forbes
Forbes
9 Sep 2024


Vice President Kamala Harris updated her campaign website Sunday night to elaborate on her policy views ahead of Tuesday’s debate against former President Donald Trump, giving a more fleshed-out picture of her views on issues like gun violence, immigration and abortion, though she still has not given many concrete policy proposals outside of economic issues.

Kamala Harris 2024 election campaign event

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at Northwestern High School in Detroit on ... [+] Sept. 2.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Harris’ campaign website was updated to include an “issues” section over the weekend, which includes four sections on the economy, protecting “fundamental freedoms,” ensuring “safety and justice” and keeping America “safe, secure and prosperous.”

Each section also includes a section decrying “Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda” and the policies proposed by the ex-president and conservative activists on various issues, as the Harris campaign has repeatedly sought to emphasize Trump would impose an extreme policy agenda (Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, a hard-right agenda not officially affiliated with his campaign, though some of its authors served in his administration).

Though Harris outlined some policies during her speech at the Democratic National Convention accepting the Democratic nomination, she has given few concrete policy proposals, outside of releasing an economic plan that she discussed in an August speech.

She also elaborated slightly more on her policy views during an interview with CNN in August—her first as the Democratic nominee—in which anchor Dana Bash asked her about issues like the Israel-Hamas war.

Harris has broadly said she wants to support the middle class as president, proposing what she has dubbed an “opportunity economy.” Tax-wise, that includes expanding the child tax credit—including $6,000 for newborns in their first year and $3,600 per child in middle and lower-income families—along with restoring the Earned Income Tax Credit for citizens who earn less than $63,398 and a pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 per year. The vice president also wants to go after price gouging for grocery store prices—a proposal that economists have had mixed feelings about—and target housing affordability. She has proposed giving $25,000 in assistance to first-time homebuyers and establishing tax credits for developers to build starter homes and affordable rental units, with a plan for a $40 billion “innovation fund” to address the housing crisis. Her administration would also boost small businesses by expanding a startup tax deduction from $5,000 to $50,000. After the Biden administration imposed a $35 monthly insulin cap for seniors, Harris has also called for expanding that to all Americans, along with a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs. She said she will also work with states to abolish medical debt and expand Affordable Care Act subsidies. Harris said at the Democratic National Convention her administration would “protect Social Security and Medicare,” and her website notes it will “strengthen” those programs by raising taxes on high-income earners.

In addition to economic policies dedicated to boosting the middle class, Harris is also targeting higher taxes for the richest Americans, saying on her website the wealthy and large corporations will “pay their fair share.” The campaign website outlines proposals to accomplish that including rolling back Trump-era tax cuts on the wealthy and implementing a “billionaire minimum tax” that imposes a 25% tax rate and taxes unrealized gains. She also proposes “quadrupling” the tax on stock buybacks and imposing a 28% long-term capital gains tax for people earning $1 million or more annually. That proposal is actually lower than the 39.6% rate that Biden has previously proposed, however, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has called for the vice president to “go higher.”

Harris told CNN she does not support a ban on fracking, reversing an earlier position she held prior to 2020. The vice president did back climate change initiatives, telling CNN the “climate crisis is real” and “it is an urgent matter to which we should apply metrics that include holding ourselves to deadlines around time.” That being said, Harris explained she has learned that “we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.” The vice president’s website otherwise points to the Biden administration’s work on climate change and states Harris’ platform “advances environmental justice, protects public lands and public health, increases resilience to climate disasters, lowers household energy costs, creates millions of new jobs, and continues to hold polluters accountable to secure clean air and water for all”—but does not provide any concrete proposals.

While critics on the right have tried to paint Harris as Biden’s “border czar”—a position she never actually held—Harris has faced pressure to outline her views on immigration. She told CNN she still wants to pass the bipartisan border bill that she blames former President Donald Trump for helping to kill earlier this year. Harris walked back earlier statements she made during the 2020 primary suggesting she wanted to decriminalize border crossings, telling CNN, “We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally. And there should be consequences.” On its website, the Harris campaign said the vice president “knows that our immigration system is broken,” calling for “comprehensive reform” including bolstering border security measures and an “earned pathway to citizenship.”

Harris told CNN she is “unequivocal” and “unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself. And that’s not going to change.” She pushed for a ceasefire deal with a two-state solution, saying any resolution must also ensure “the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity,” and her website suggests she would not make any changes to the Biden administration’s approach to addressing the conflict. Harris also made comments in support of Ukraine during her convention speech and on her website, though she did not give specifics about any policies or level of aid she would support. The vice president has touted her work in helping Ukraine under Biden and said, “As president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.”

Harris has made her support for reproductive rights a key part of her candidacy after advocating on the issue as vice president, and has heavily opposed attacks on the procedure by Trump and Project 2025—a right-wing agenda not formally affiliated with his campaign. She said at the convention and on her website she will sign a bill legalizing abortion into law if elected, which most abortion rights activists have interpreted as her calling for a return to the standard set under Roe v. Wade, in which abortion is allowed nationwide until the fetus is viable. Harris will “never” sign an abortion ban into law, her website states.

Harris called at the convention for passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act builds on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and addresses parts of that bill that have been struck down by the Supreme Court, strengthening voting rights protections and restoring a requirement for states to get approval from the Justice Department to enact voting rules. The Freedom to Vote Act would impose sweeping measures like universal early voting, no-excuse voting by mail and automatic voter registration, along with adding protections against gerrymandering and reforming campaign finance laws to strengthen transparency and tighten rules around super PACs. Beyond voting, Harris’ website also points to her longtime support for LGBTQ rights and said she will fight to pass the Equality Act that would codify anti-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity into law.

Harris’ website emphasizes she will work so that “Americans have the freedom to live safe from gun violence,” specifically backing proposals including bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, universal background checks and red flag laws. She also backs funding for law enforcement and said she would strengthen “proven gun violence prevention programs.” Her calls to invest in law enforcement come after the Trump campaign has attacked Harris by claiming she wanted to “defund the police,” pointing to statements she made during the 2020 racial justice movement expressing some support for that movement—though she never explicitly said she wanted to defund law enforcement.

In light of a series of controversial rulings by the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, Harris followed Biden in backing a series of reforms to the court, with her website singling out term limits and a binding code of ethics like lower federal judges have to follow. The candidate also expressed support for a federal measure that would undo the Supreme Court’s ruling giving Trump and other ex-presidents some immunity from criminal charges, but her website did not specify whether Harris backs negating that ruling through a new constitutional amendment, as Biden supports, or via legislation.

Harris—whose running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, is a veteran of the Army National Guard—said on her campaign website that she will take increased steps to support veterans and their families. The website singles out steps like trying to end homelessness among veterans by investing in mental health and suicide prevention programs and eliminating barriers to employment for veterans. The Harris campaign said she will also “[expand] economic opportunities” for active duty military families and veterans, but did not specify any concrete proposals.

While her website does now mention a range of issues, she has not released the kind of detailed policy proposals on other issues that she did with the economy, and her website only briefly mentions any more concrete plans on each topic. The Democratic Party has released a platform that includes more detailed proposals, but it was drafted while Biden was still the nominee, so it’s unclear if Harris would change those policies were she in office. The vice president has been willing to go beyond Biden’s proposals with some issues she’s released proposals on so far, such as supporting law enforcement’s ability to go after companies for price gouging and raising the amount of assistance first-time home buyers should receive from $10,000 to $25,000.

Whether any of Harris’ proposals will change before November. The New York Times reported in August that some of the vice president’s big-money donors have asked her to tone down her proposal on taxing the ultra-rich, after she said she supported policies that would tax wealthy Americans on their “unrealized gains”—meaning money that investors have made through assets like stocks, but haven’t yet sold for a profit. Donors have reportedly brought their concerns up to Harris’ campaign advisors and the candidate herself, and have claimed they do see some room for flexibility in her specific proposals. “In my interactions with [the campaign], the key is she focuses on her values and is not an ideologue about any particular program,” billionaire Mark Cuban told the Times. Harris defended changes in her specific policy views over the years to CNN, saying that while specifics of policies she supports may evolve, “the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.”

Trump and his campaign have slammed Harris’ policies as being too far-left and “radical.” “If Kamala's goal was to confirm she's a Radical Left lunatic — mission accomplished,” the Trump campaign said in an email to press after Harris’ CNN interview aired.

Harris took over as the Democratic nominee in July after Biden suddenly dropped out of the race, with the president endorsing Harris minutes after he announced he was stepping down and Democratic leaders quickly coalescing around the vice president. She had no challengers for the nomination. Harris’ policy platform has become a key question her campaign has faced in the weeks since she became the nominee, and while the candidate released her economic agenda and highlighted it in an August 16 speech, those remarks are still the only substantive speech on her policy proposals she has given thus far. The vice president and running mate Gov. Tim Walz sat down with CNN in August following weeks of pressure for Harris to speak with the press, with the Trump campaign claiming the Democrat was “ducking the media” by refusing to do a one-on-one interview. Harris had previously only answered shouted questions from reporters and spoke with social media influencers at the convention. Her website had also not had an “issues” section previously, further inflaming criticism of not being upfront about her policies.