Vice President Kamala Harris struggled to outline herself when she ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
The occasion’s base was demanding that candidates help Bernie Sanders’ single-payer healthcare plan, and the power amongst many activists targeted on discriminatory policing practices and insurance policies following the deaths of George Floyd and different women and men in encounters with police. Harris’ views on these points appeared to maneuver together with these of the grassroots, however she typically confronted questions from the left about her degree of conviction.
The place Harris is on the ideological spectrum has lengthy been onerous to pinpoint. After Joe Biden chosen her as his working mate in 2020, she moved towards the middle on some points, and has typically stored these positions since taking Biden’s place atop the ticket on this 12 months’s election.
Harris has not defined a lot of her shifts. They could assist her amongst reasonable voters within the normal election, however they’ve left her open to criticism from the proper.
Listed below are some points on which her stance has modified:
Fracking
What she mentioned then:
What she says now:
The difficulty: Fracking is the injection of water or different substances into the bottom to ease the extraction of pure gasoline or oil. Critics say the environmental results — groundwater contamination, air air pollution and even seismic exercise — could be devastating. The business says fracking could be finished responsibly and safely and that securing pure gasoline can cut back dependence on coal.
The change: When Harris was working for president in 2019, a local weather activist requested throughout a CNN city corridor whether or not she would decide to a nationwide ban on fracking on her first day in workplace as president. That’s when Harris mentioned she supported a ban — a remark now typically cited by former President Trump. Harris added, “Now we have to simply acknowledge that the residual influence of fracking is big when it comes to the influence on the well being and security of communities.”
Harris made her “I cannot ban fracking” remark throughout her Sept. 10 debate with Trump. She says she has not supported a fracking ban since 2020, the 12 months she grew to become Joe Biden’s vice presidential working mate after ending her first presidential run in 2019.
When requested about her place, Harris has mentioned, “My values haven’t modified.” She has not expounded on the remark, however has appeared to recommend that fracking can proceed as a result of different efforts can assist clear up or protect the surroundings.
Political implications: Pennsylvania, a swing state with 19 electoral school votes, is vital to successful the White Home. Jessie Bluedorn, a New York Metropolis local weather activist who requested Harris about fracking in 2019, mentioned her household lived in western Pennsylvania, the place fracking has turn out to be a typical observe. The poisonous results of fracking, Bluedorn mentioned, are “immense, from contaminated groundwater to toxic emissions.”
The problem for Harris is to gauge whether or not help or opposition to fracking will assist her most in Pennsylvania. Over the previous few many years, there was a increase in power assets extraction there, creating jobs and giving a lift to the commonwealth’s financial system.
Border safety
What she mentioned then:
What she says now:
The difficulty: Border arrests hit a file excessive in December 2023 with practically 250,000 encounters. They declined to fewer than 60,000 in July and August, following an announcement by the Biden administration in June that it could implement new asylum restrictions.
Along with her function as vice chairman, Harris was tapped in 2021 to sort out the “root causes” of migration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador by working to enhance financial and safety circumstances in these nations.
Being in the USA illegally is a civil violation, not a criminal offense. However individuals who cross the border illegally are sometimes referred for felony prosecution.
Some Democrats have advocated for decriminalizing the border and limiting the Justice Division’s skill to make felony referrals in such instances. That motion gained traction in late 2017 after the Trump administration stepped up felony prosecutions as a part of a household separation coverage during which youngsters had been positioned underneath Division of Well being and Human Companies custody.
The change: Harris, as a Democratic senator representing California, spoke out in a February 2017 flooring speech towards Trump’s order banning immigrants from Muslim-majority nations, emphasizing that “an undocumented immigrant is just not a felony.” As a presidential candidate in 2019, she supported decriminalization.
Harris has shifted her rhetoric since then, telling CNN in an Aug. 29 interview that “there needs to be [a] consequence” to crossing illegally, however not spelling out any penalties. On a coverage degree, she has made her help for what she calls the “hardest border management invoice in many years” a centerpiece of her marketing campaign. The bipartisan invoice, killed by Republicans in Congress in February at Trump’s urging, would add 1,500 border brokers and different assets geared toward stopping gangs and smugglers.
Political implications: Immigration has been Trump’s motivating situation since he entered politics — and has been a big vulnerability for Harris, even amid steep declines in border arrests. Trump had his largest lead over Harris — 21% — on the difficulty of which candidate would higher safe the border and management immigration, based on an NBC ballot launched Sept. 22.
The identical ballot discovered Harris main Trump considerably over who would higher shield immigrants’ rights.
The difficulty was arguably useful to Democrats in 2020, when many citizens had been upset with Trump’s household separation coverage and his ban on immigrants from Muslim-majority nations.
However the tide seems to have shifted underneath Biden, as voters noticed photographs of a border that appeared uncontrolled. Harris is unlikely to win on the difficulty, however is hoping to neutralize considerations amongst persuadable voters that she is going to depart the border unchecked.
Healthcare
What she mentioned then:
What she says now:
The difficulty: Medicare for All is a common healthcare program supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It could get rid of non-public insurance coverage and place everybody on public healthcare plans, much like many European nations.
The change: Harris, as a senator, co-sponsored Sanders’ Medicare for All invoice in 2017. She modified her stance in 2019, when she was working for president, selecting a plan that allowed non-public variations of Medicare “that adhere to strict Medicare necessities on prices and advantages” whereas placing most Individuals on a public plan. “In America, well being care needs to be a proper, not a privilege solely for individuals who can afford it. It’s why we want Medicare for All,” she wrote on the time.
However Biden by no means supported Medicare for All as president, and Harris, after changing into vice chairman, helped him increase the Reasonably priced Care Act, broadly often known as Obamacare. Her marketing campaign has mentioned she now not helps Medicare for All. Within the Sept. 10 debate with Trump, she emphasised her intent to “keep and develop” Obamacare, attacking Trump for attempting to repeal it when he was president.
Political implications: Medicare for All was a defining situation for progressives within the 2020 Democratic main, however that’s now not the case. Obamacare, initially unpopular, has help from greater than 60% of Individuals, based on KFF monitoring polls.
Harris has tried to play offense on healthcare, pointing to Trump’s opposition to Obamacare and the Biden administration’s success at increasing it and negotiating prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients.
Defunding the police
What she mentioned then:
What she says now:
The difficulty: In the course of the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests, after the killing of George Floyd and different Black Individuals by the hands of legislation enforcement in 2020, many progressives argued for redirecting police assets to social applications.
The change: Harris made a number of sympathetic feedback to the defund motion in 2020, together with one on the “Ebro within the Morning” radio present during which she mentioned the motion was “rightly” reexamining municipal budgets to “determine whether or not it displays the proper priorities.”
After Biden picked her as his working mate that 12 months, the marketing campaign known as it “a lie” to recommend both Harris or Biden wished to defund the police. The 2021 COVID-19 spending invoice handed by Democrats allotted $15 billion to violence prevention and public security.
The Harris marketing campaign mentioned in a current assertion that she doesn’t help reducing police funds.
Political implications: Public help for defunding police went from 45% in 2020 to 35% in 2022, based on Gallup.
Although statistics present crime is down from current highs after the pandemic lockdown, each presidential candidates have leaned into the difficulty. Harris has emphasised her credentials as a “powerful” former prosecutor, whereas Trump has forged her as mushy on crime in an “out-of-control” nation. She famous that Trump, when complaining in regards to the quite a few court docket instances towards him, known as for defunding of the Justice Division.
The 2 are roughly tied in public opinion on the difficulty of who would deal with crime higher, based on an ABC Information ballot launched Sept. 15.
Necessary gun buybacks
What she mentioned then:
What she says now:
The difficulty: Many gun management advocates help not solely a ban on promoting new assault weapons, but in addition a buyback program to take away from circulation thousands and thousands which have already been bought. Some need a voluntary program whereas others help one that may require house owners to promote them to the federal government.
The change: Harris mentioned a number of instances throughout the 2020 marketing campaign, together with at a 2019 gun security discussion board on MSNBC in Las Vegas, that she revered the 2nd Modification, however that an assault weapon is “a weapon of warfare” that’s “designed to kill a whole lot of human beings shortly” and wanted to be taken off the road. “I help a compulsory buyback program,” she mentioned.
Her marketing campaign has since mentioned she now not favors a compulsory buyback, and he or she mentioned throughout her debate with Trump that she is a gun proprietor who’s “not taking anyone’s weapons away.”
Political implications: Banning assault weapons is mostly standard, based on polls. However most politicians who advocate a ban have emphasised that buybacks could be voluntary to keep away from accusations that they need “to confiscate your weapons,” as Trump mentioned of Harris throughout the debate.
Harris favors stricter gun legal guidelines, however is cautious of alarming hunters within the essential battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Instances workers author Steve Padilla contributed to this report.
