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Harris’s closing message must separate her vision from Biden’s
By Stuart Malec
National Political Director of the Progressive Policy Institute
for The Hill
While Harris should certainly not repudiate any of President Biden’s policies that she has supported as vice president, the same underlying imperative to create more political distance exists.
In recent days, the campaign has been working on this challenge, with reports that Harris has been “weighing” how she can differentiate herself from Biden. In his recent speech in Philadelphia, Biden said “Kamala will take the country in her own direction,” offering perhaps the most direct message yet of daylight between himself and his vice president.
To be clear, Harris’s messaging on protecting American democracy and restoring abortion rights has been stellar. That, along with the fact that she is a younger and more stable alternative to an increasingly delusional and vengeful Donald Trump, may very well be enough to put her over the top.
But with Election Day less than a week away, it’s crunch time for Harris to strengthen her case by distinguishing herself on the key issues where voters are looking for a new direction. Voters’ concerns about high prices, the rising cost of living and immigration remain serious electoral liabilities that could still propel Trump back to the White House.
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Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump has made imposing a double-digit tariff on all imports and a 60% tariff on goods from China a central pitch to voters, and has even suggested replacing the income tax with tariff revenue. In a new PPI report, Laura Duffy draws striking parallels between Trump’s plan and the debates over and effects of historical tariff policies going back to 1789. She argues that returning to tariff-heavy strategies would not only make it impossible to fund government spending commitments that have grown since the country’s founding, but would also harm downstream industries and greatly burden American taxpayers and workers.
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New from the Experts
Erin Delaney, Director of Health Care Policy: A Comprehensive Plan to Lower Health Costs Without Reducing Coverage
⮕ PPI Publication
Tamar Jacoby, Director of the New Ukraine Project: A Millennium of Conflict
⮕ Washington Monthly
Diana Moss, Vice President and Director of Competition Policy: Fixing the Fix: Updating Policy on Merger Remedies
⮕ Competition Policy International
Alex Kilander, Policy Analyst, Center for Funding America's Future: Ensuring Working Americans Get Paid What They Deserve
⮕ PPI Publication
Trade Fact of the Week: Tariffs are a poor form of taxation
⮕ PPI's Trade Fact of the Week
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The many ways Donald Trump threatens American prosperity
By Will Marshall
Founder and President of the Progressive Policy Institute
for The Hill
A healthy U.S. economy is finally emerging from inflation’s shadow, enabling Americans to see and feel its underlying strengths. Is the good news coming in time to give Vice President Kamala Harris a boost in the November election?
Normally, a vibrant economy lifts political incumbents, but polls show U.S. voters are still preoccupied with high living costs. Harris offers a slew of proposals for driving down the cost of housing, food, health care and other necessities.
That’s essential, but with inflation and interest rates falling, Democrats have a stronger economic hand to play. They can point at growing evidence that working families are benefiting from the U.S. economic boom, and point out that Donald Trump’s slapdash economic ideas and frantic pandering threaten to derail it.
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Don't Miss These Reports From PPI's Campaign for Working America
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Radically Pragmatic
Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career, ft. Michael Horn
On this episode of Radically Pragmatic, Bruno Manno, PPI's Senior Advisor and Director of the What Works Lab, talks to Michael Horn about his new book, Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career, co-written by Ethan Bernstein and Bob Moesta. The pair discuss all things jobs and K-12 education.
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Staff Spotlight: Laura Duffy
 Policy Analyst, Center for Funding America's Future
Laura Duffy is a Policy Analyst with PPI’s Center for Funding America’s Future, which develops fiscally responsible policy proposals to strengthen public investments in the foundation of our economy, modernize health and retirement programs to reflect an aging society, transform our tax code to reward work over wealth, and put the national debt on a downward trajectory.
Prior to joining PPI, Laura was the Executive Research Coordinator at Rethink Priorities, a research organization that identifies impactful areas for philanthropic spending. In this capacity, Laura helped design her team’s research agenda and developed innovative computational models to compare various charitable opportunities’ cost-effectiveness.
Before joining Rethink Priorities, Laura was a Community Organizer for Forward Montana in her hometown of Great Falls. There, she worked with local organizations to help register and turn out young people to vote during the 2020 election cycle. She also currently serves on the steering committee for the Center for New Liberalism, a grassroots organization that advocates for center-left policies that will create a more open and prosperous society.
Laura graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Science in Statistics.
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