Kamala Harris has been vice president of the United States for three and a half years, but now she’s running for president and is trying to style herself as the candidate of change. She says she won’t settle for Joe Biden’s old way or Donald Trump’s crooked way. Rather, she vows a new way forward. Nonetheless, the kind of change she’s been pledging is more symbol than substance.
Harris’s economic policy is much the same as so-called Bidenomics, which involves reviving the economy and empowering the middle class. But Harris’s policy proposal is different in both focus and means. Given that inflation remains a top concern for U.S. voters, she has stressed that she would deal with inflation first, and in a much bolder way. She accuses big monopolies of price gouging and therefore proposes to combat them to reduce inflation. Moreover, she brings forward the concept of an “opportunity economy,” which prioritizes building more houses, capping rent increases and providing subsidies for homebuyers in her economic agenda.
This response to America’s housing shortage since the pandemic, revives a policy from the Clinton-era Democrats. Though she has yet to highlight industrial policies in infrastructure, semiconductors and clean energy — to which Biden has been attaching importance — Harris is supposed to continue with Biden’s policy measures. In addition, she supports his bid to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
On social welfare polices, long valued by the Democrats, Harris goes further than Biden. She has advocated for child care and paid family leave, among other items, with a plan to give families with newborns generous child tax credits. She has also called for lowering drug prices by cracking down on pharmaceutical monopolies. However, she has given up on “Medicare for all” — something she had backed during her 2020 presidential bid.
On social issues, Harris has been trying to make key to her campaign the protection of women’s right to abortion nationally. As a Catholic, Biden has said he is “not big” on abortion, and since the 2022 midterm elections, Harris has become her party’s standard-bearer on women’s rights. In this presidential campaign, she has further used the right to abortion as a powerful tool to attack Trump and appeal to female voters.
Immigration, a top concern of American voters, puts Harris at a disadvantage. She is moving closer to middle ground by vowing to resurrect and sign the tough border bill that Trump derailed, and she backs the building of a southern border wall. Furthermore, she has been highlighting her accomplishments and intransigence in the fight against crime — in sharp contrast to her previous support for changes in police funding.
On diplomacy and security, Harris is trying to present a tough, serious and responsible image. She rebuked Trump for being capricious in U.S. foreign policy, sabotaging America’s alliance system and damaging its interests by pandering to the flattery of its opponents. She’s more likely than Biden to use military power and to engage in proactive diplomatic maneuvers. She said she will “ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world” and will “never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary” to defend American interests, particularly against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.
Regarding the issue of Ukraine, Harris pledged increased aid for the country and reiterated America’s steadfast commitment to NATO. And on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a conundrum that is ripping Democrats apart, she stands by Israel’s right to self-defense while highlighting the misery in Gaza and the necessity of a cease-fire.
Where Harris stands on the issue of tariffs remains unclear. On China policy, she recently underlined that the U.S. must win its competition with China. However, the Democratic Party’s newly released policy platform dedicated a section to China for the first time. It uses a page and a half to elaborate on the party’s approach, describing China as “America’s most consequential strategic competitor” and the only global actor with the intent and capacity to fundamentally reshape the U.S.-led international order. This reveals that Democrats are taking an increasingly hawkish attitude toward China and that Harris will probably press ahead on this line.
In the campaign against Trump, Harris has new ideas. Biden has repeatedly reminded voters about how Trump threatened and damaged American democracy. And Hillary Clinton, during her 2016 presidential campaign, spoke about the significance of breaking through the glass ceiling and accused Trump of being a racist. By contrast, what Harris emphasizes is simpler: resuming normalcy. She said that if she is elected, the United States will “move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” assuring voters that she has the capability to summon all Americans to chart “a new way forward.” She shapes herself as a pragmatic leader, chastising Trump for being “unserious” and “weird” and easily manipulated by special interests. In addition, she has repeatedly used patriotic and freedom-related rhetoric to package herself, which is notably different from the Democratic Party’s traditional emphasis on equality and social justice.
In truth, the real change Harris represents may neither be her policy commitments nor her campaign strategy but her unique identity. Her proposals still fall short on substance and detail, and the strategies she has been applying during the campaign remain untested. The reason that Democratic voters have been excited about her over the past month is closely related to her identity — namely her age, race and gender. She constitutes a fresh choice that moves beyond the two old faces of Biden and Trump, and will likely make history by becoming the first female, first black and first Asian-American president.
Harris is in a honeymoon period since launching her campaign. Whether or not her proposals can attract voters, her strategies can beat Trump’s or her identity can make history remains uncertain. Clearly, if she is elected, she will confront a range of severe challenges, including a Congress likely to be controlled by the GOP, widespread extremism, a debt-ridden government, the decline of U.S. hegemony and ongoing international conflicts. It’s no easy job to carry out real change.
