The most significant pivot for Vice President Kamala Harris between her first and second presidential runs has been going cold on running as a climate warrior. As a long-shot candidate in 2019, Harris hitched her campaign wagon to the Left’s biggest climate policy ideas imaginable. Now that she’s unopposed after President Joe Biden bowed out of the contest and anointed her as his successor, she has made it clear climate matters are still on her agenda, though there are more important aspects of governing.
Running to the left or right in a primary and tacking to the center is not new. And it’s not surprising Harris would choose to distance herself from the Green New Deal menu of programs that strayed away from climate policy and into economic reform, frustrating voters to the right of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Energy Reporter Nancy Vu took a look at how the Left’s one-time dream climate candidate has remade herself in a more palatable image in the latest installment of our series examining the ways everyone is trying to define her with fewer than 100 days left until Election Day.
Harris’s record as a climate hawk goes back to her time as attorney general in California. However, California climate and energy policies don’t play as well in Pennsylvania, a vital energy state that will need to back Harris if she has any chance of making it to the White House.
“Since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Harris has walked back her 2019 call to ban fracking,” Nancy wrote. “On Wednesday, she also reversed her stance on supporting a federal job guarantee, which was included in the Green New Deal resolution she once co-sponsored.”
“Harris’s policy reversals show a campaign split between courting environmentalists and industry interests within energy-focused states — blocs that could be essential to winning a campaign contest against a former president who once called climate change a ‘hoax’ and pledged to roll back the administration’s environmental regulations,” she wrote.
For the median voter interested in his or her presidential candidate addressing climate change, Harris shouldn’t have to work overly hard. Former President Donald Trump doesn’t have a robust climate change policy plan, as the Republican has focused primarily on energy creation and exploration — drilling and fracking in particular.
And as Nancy pointed out, fracking is especially fraught for Harris and other Democrats who want to look attractive in Pennsylvania. The practice receives criticism but has also proven a vital policy to support if someone wants to win in the Keystone State.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) reversed his own opposition to fracking when he ran against Dr. Mehmet Oz for the Senate seat there in 2022.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who is seen as a favorite to join Harris on the ticket as her vice president, has made it a point to include fracking, green energy, and fossil fuel groups in his state’s energy strategy. Something Harris is surely looking at replicating, even if it draws some criticism.
“I call it Pennsylvania-pandering,” American Energy Institute founder and CEO Jason Isaac told Nancy of Harris’s recent campaign statements on fracking. “I really think all this is because she recognizes the importance of the electoral votes in Pennsylvania and Ohio.”
The pandering might work, and she’ll only be in for criticism from her left if she loses in November.
To shore up other concerns she has strayed too far from the party’s biggest dreams about climate change policies, Harris is using her record as a tough prosecutor to show she hasn’t abandoned the tough-on-oil reputation she earned as attorney general.
“The perception of Harris as a forceful ‘climate litigator’ has further cemented her inroads with green groups,” Nancy wrote. “A number of large environmental groups have come out in support of Harris following the announcement of her presidential bid, including the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the National Resources Defense Council Action Fund, the Sierra Club, and Clean Action for American Action.”
Click here to read more about Harris cooling her approach to hard-line climate change ideas.
Instead of splitting his time between courtrooms and rallies, Trump has had the most important parts of campaign season all to himself. His conviction in New York on more than 30 counts of fraud was a setback — until the donations started pouring in and he closed the cash gap between himself and Biden.
Then, the Supreme Court stepped in with a July surprise (yes, that was almost exactly one month ago) when it ruled he and other presidents have broad immunity for official acts while in office. The blockbuster opinion rankled Democrats and forced various timelines for Trump’s legal cases well past Election Day. In Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon tossed special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against the former president, forcing the prosecutor to expend resources to appeal the decision and bring the case to another court.
But Trump’s good luck is starting to dry up, as Justice Reporter Ashley Oliver wrote for us this morning in a preview of one case that, while not at full throttle, is set to complicate the GOP candidate’s calendar.
His case in Washington, D.C., regarding election interference for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, could resume as early as today, with Judge Tanya Chutkan tasked with holding hearings to establish which charges against Trump can hold up under the court’s new immunity guidelines.
“The case’s anticipated revival could pave the way for dramatic pretrial court proceedings in the coming months, serving as the only remaining case out of Trump’s four criminal prosecutions to see significant activity ahead of the presidential election,” Ashley wrote.
“Chutkan, an Obama appointee, will probably not hold any hearings immediately, but the judge will likely provide expectations about what will come next through a scheduling update on Friday or in the coming days, according to legal experts.”
What experts expect to see is a “mini trial” that will litigate the charges against Trump, determining what will stick and what will have to be tossed out. The “mini trials” won’t be satisfying for groups that want to see Trump have to relive his hush money difficulties, though they will go some distance in creating lanes to keep the pressure on.
“Make no mistake: This isn’t the full trial Americans deserve,” the Defend Democracy Project told Ashley. “A mini trial, however, could still provide extremely helpful information for the public — and outline Trump’s alleged crimes to the American people.”
Click here to read more about Trump’s return to court.
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Biden is traveling to Wilmington, Delaware, this weekend and has nothing on his public schedule.
Harris has nothing on her public schedule, but she will make stops in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada over a five-day period next week.
Wish Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) a happy birthday as he turns 40 today.
And former President Barack Obama turns 63 on Sunday.