WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris wants to neutralize a glaring weakness that has threatened her prospects since replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee: voter frustration with high prices.
Harris is talking about the economy in hopes of winning over voters who continue to feel the economic pain. It may be the most thoughtful and clear break he’s had with Biden since buying the ticket.
Biden has spent the past year touting “Bidenomics” and insisting that voters come around and give him credit for a string of legislative victories, ultimately blaming him for the high cost of groceries and other necessities.
But Harris is more attuned to voters’ concerns about the cost of living and is poised to position himself as the best candidate to ease pocketbook pressures. He is not criticizing Biden. But his tone and message suggest he’s not just trying to cast himself as a Biden protege.
“We’ve had a historic inflationary shock,” said a Harris campaign adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It has affected every American economically in different ways, and it will take time for it to work its way into people’s lives.”
Harris submitted fluctuating bids wanted to assure voters that if elected he would pass new laws to cut spending. When it comes to the financial pressures facing millions of Americans, he embraces a more populist message than Biden. Harris portrays profit-seeking corporations and landlords as the villains driving up grocery prices and rents.
Voters who have played a key role in Democratic victories in past elections, polls show, have a pessimistic view of the economy. Gen Z voters under the age of 30 rank inflation and the cost of living as their top concerns, followed by abortion, health care, threats to democracy and other issues. NBC News survey showed this month.
Inflation is already falling. But prices remain about 20% higher than during the pandemic.
CNBC survey Last month, one registered voter asked if a Harris or Trump victory would leave them financially better off or if their situation would not change. A stunning majority, 40%, said they would be better off financially if Trump won, compared to just 21% who said they would do better under a Harris presidency.
Harris says he has plans good policy. But presidential campaigns are not think tanks; they are created to win votes. What Harris is proposing could boost her standing among key constituencies where she is lagging behind or needs to maximize her vote.
Tuesday night’s debate with Trump is perhaps her best chance to deliver her message that, as the daughter of a single mother struggling to afford a home, she understands people’s fears and is an antidote to economic anxiety.
“When I’m elected president, I will make cutting spending and increasing economic security for all Americans a priority,” he said during a speech in North Carolina last month. “As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to the majority of Americans, such as food costs.”
Appeal to young voters
Harris paid special attention to young voters who are getting married and buying a house. He rolled out plans to give parents of newborns a $6,000 tax credit, along with a $25,000 subsidy to help first-time homebuyers pay their down payments.
“Obviously, housing has been a big pressure point for young voters. He speaks directly to that,” said Brendan Duke, a former senior adviser to the Biden White House National Economic Council.
If Harris wants to rebuild a winning Democratic coalition from 2020, he needs to galvanize young voters. In an NBC News poll of registered voters under the age of 30, 50% said they preferred Harris and 34% said they preferred Trump.
According to a comprehensive study, despite a 16-point difference, Biden was 24 points ahead of Trump among voters in this age group in 2020. to learn By Pew Research Center.
Both campaigns are investing in ads focused on the economy, and Trump sees that as a liability for Harris. Trump’s ads focus mainly on immigration and crime. Still, in the key state of Pennsylvania, he and allied groups spent more on Google platform ads focused on the economy than on other issues. The University of Pennsylvania Program on Opinion Research and Election Research was found.
The problem for Trump has been his tendency to go off topic. Delivered as a policy address in North Carolina last month, so-called Trump blamed his opponent for the economic pain people are feeling, using the phrase “Harris’s price hike.” But he used the same speech to mock her laugh (“The laugh of a madman”) and to criticize Harris’ Time magazine cover sketch (“They don’t use a picture, they use an artist’s sketch”).
Trump He stumbled over a question about child care costs during an appearance last week before the Economic Club of New York. The questioner asked what bill he would promote to ease the burden on families. Trump did not respond directly. Instead, he talked about the huge amount of money the U.S. would receive by imposing tariffs on imported goods, suggesting that the windfall could be used to pay for childcare costs.
Reshma Saujani, the woman who asked the question during Trump’s speech, later told NBC News that his response was “incredibly out of touch, especially when you know you need moderate women to win this election.”
Trump villains versus Harris villains
On a rhetorical level, Harris has veered into populist territory that Trump has inhabited for years. Unlike Trump, He blames migration and “globalist” forces for many problems in the country. wealthy interests who want to make money off the backs of ordinary Americans.
High housing costs? “Corporate landlords are colluding with each other to set rents at artificially high rates,” he said. said recently North Carolina promises a crackdown.
High food prices? “Price gouging by opportunistic companies,” he said, urging the new authorities to go after the culprits.
New TV commercial “We all know prices are too high, but while corporations are robbing families, Trump is focused on giving them tax cuts,” said a narrator from Harris’ campaign last week.
Identifying the culprits and promising to hold them accountable for high rents and grocery store prices could help Harris win over some working-class voters who lean toward Trump. Corporations offer a natural foil, given that voters are increasingly suspicious of rich and powerful interests, especially after the 2008 financial crisis.
“This is indeed a political and communication ploy that is popular with voters. And it’s working,” says Brian Riedl, an economic policy expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute.
Corporate bashing is a “new angle” for Harris to “acknowledge the flaws in the economy without placing the blame back on the current administration or its policies.”
Harris’ strategy departs from Biden’s habit of repeating legislative victories over the past three and a half years. Simply repeating Biden’s talking points seems like a losing formula: Biden has been pushed out of the race by caucus leaders amid historically low approval ratings.
Harris’ message comes less from Biden than from another Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who presided over a strong economy in the 1990s and saw the role of government as providing “opportunity” to Americans who wanted to take advantage of it. Clinton mentioned this word 13 times in his 2000 State of the Union speech.
In a speech in North Carolina last month, Harris avoided the term “Bidenomics,” the latest portmanteau, Kamalanomics and instead promoted what he called the “Opportunity Economy.”
“Throughout his presidency, Biden has announced action after action and it fell on deaf ears,” said Danielle Deiseroth, executive director of Data For Progress, a progressive polling and strategy firm. “Harris is a more capable messenger.”