The economic plan of the Democratic presidential frontrunner, Kamala Harris, could represent a great opportunity for her, but also a huge risk.
Shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race a week ago, Mr.me Harris began crafting her own economic narrative, emphasizing ending child poverty, promoting unions, reducing health care and child care costs, and protecting “dignity” in retirement.
She did not mention the word “inflation” once in her speeches in Wisconsin, Indiana or Texas.
Inflation has haunted Joe Biden’s administration, forcing him to acknowledge voters’ frustrations with rising food, gasoline, housing and auto costs time and again.
Kamala Harris is placing a higher priority on what she thinks might happen.
“In our vision of the future, we envision a place where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead – a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every senior can retire with dignity, and where every worker has the freedom to join a union,” Mr.me Harris to the American Federation of Teachers.
But Republicans have moved quickly to try to blame Kamala Harris for the inflation they until recently blamed on Joe Biden. They point to the cumulative effect of high prices under the Democratic administration.
Labor Department data show that consumer prices have risen 19.2% since President Biden took office, while average hourly earnings have increased 16.9%.
Republican Party leaders openly claim that Kamala Harris contributed to inflation without specifying how, other than by being vice president.
“Vice President Harris is responsible for the record of this administration,” said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Her fingerprints are all over the failure that has been the last four years.”
Past and present officials who have worked with Mme Harris has said in interviews that criticism of inflation is not expected to stick with her because for many voters she represents a new voice after nearly eight years of Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
Some of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss political matters publicly, said that Mme Harris would likely stay in line with Mr. Biden’s 2025 budget proposal and its plan to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%, up from the 21% set by Mr. Trump in his 2017 tax overhaul.
Her emergence as the Democratic candidate was accompanied by positive economic news.
The Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy grew 2.8% annually in the second quarter. On Friday, it reported that personal consumption inflation eased to 2.5% from a year earlier, as financial markets now expect the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate in September.
Those who have known Kamala Harris for years said her work as a prosecutor in California put a sense of fairness at the heart of her economic policy ideas.
“She’s a capitalist at heart – she wants businesses to thrive,” said Yasmin Nelson, a former senior adviser to the woman.
“But she acknowledges that the balance has tipped in their favor under the Trump administration. In her vision, she wants to level the playing field.”
Republican criticism
Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio, have been trying to portray Harris as more liberal than Biden, suggesting the former California senator would further restrict the use of fossil fuels in favor of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.
Mr Trump, speaking at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, called his opponent “the most incompetent and left-wing vice president in American history”.
Mr. Vance attacked his policies in an interview Friday on the Megyn Kelly show on SiriusXM.
“We can’t let those who are going to destroy the American manufacturing and energy economy take the reins of power,” he said. “It’s going to be much worse if you have someone even more liberal than Biden.”
The Trump campaign quickly rehashed Mr.me Harris following her short-lived campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, when she told CNN she supported bans on plastic straws, offshore oil drilling and fracking for oil and natural gas, a controversial position in Pennsylvania.
The Harris campaign has said it does not support a ban on fracking. During the 2020 vice presidential debate, it repeatedly stressed that Joe Biden would not end fracking.