Kamala Harris unveiled a new set of policy proposals aimed at lowering the cost of living for middle-class Americans during her first major policy speech at a rally in North Carolina on Friday.
The vice president and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee took aim at her rival Donald Trump, who was in North Carolina — a key battleground state — on Wednesday. Trump hosted a news conference on the economy on Thursday at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, while standing next to a table of common food items.
“He has not offered any serious plans to lower costs for middle-class families,” Harris told her audience. “He has not offered any plans to expand access to housing or health care, which is not surprising to most of us.”
Throughout her speech, Harris offered her own proposals to curb rising prices for health care, groceries, housing, and child care.
The vice president promised legislation to rein in price gouging by food companies and support small independent grocers, while denouncing that “many big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades” while consumers continue to struggle.
Harris compared her plan to Trump's proposal to impose broad tariffs on imported goods – which would hit large swaths of U.S. fruits and vegetables – as a plan that would “destroy Americans.”
“That means higher prices, on almost every single thing you need every day,” she said of the former president’s push for tariffs. “Trump tax on gasoline, Trump tax on food.”
Harris has also promoted sweeping policies to improve housing affordability, including building 3 million new affordable homes and apartments during her first term as president, expanding protections against corporate landlords, and a $25,000 rebate for first-time homebuyers.
Additionally, Harris pledged to restore and expand the child tax credit to $6,000 for a newborn’s first year of life, as well as expand the earned income tax credit for low-income workers. According to the vice president, the plan would benefit more than 100 million Americans.
Harris compared her mission to the tax benefits given to the wealthy and corporations under the first Trump administration, and warned that this would happen again if he retakes the White House.
“I think if you want to know who someone cares about, look at who they fight for,” she said. “Donald Trump fights for billionaires and big corporations. I’m going to fight to get money back to working-class and middle-class Americans.”
The economy and the financial struggles facing ordinary Americans have been and will continue to be a defining issue in the 2024 election cycle. And as Trump and Harris compete for dominance on the issue, early polls suggest voters may have more confidence in Harris’s ability to handle the economy. This week, a Financial Times/University of Michigan poll found that 42 percent of voters trust the vice president’s ability to manage the country’s financial health, a sharp increase from their expectations for President Joe Biden.
Harris will continue to lay out her vision for the country's economic future next week at the Democratic National Convention, where she is expected to be formally crowned the party's nominee to face Trump in November.
