At the first Democratic presidential debate in 2019, Kamala Harris, then a senator from California, unleashed a scathing critique of the Trump economy.
The future vice president billed President Donald J. Trump’s tax cuts as a giveaway to the rich, argued that the booming stock market was leaving the middle class behind and warned that his reckless trade agenda was hurting farmers in the heartland.
“Frankly, this economy is not working for working people,” Ms. Harris said. “For too long the rules have been written in the favor of the people who have the most and not in favor of the people who work the most.”
As Ms. Harris prepares to potentially replace President Biden atop the Democratic ticket, she now faces the challenge of articulating her own vision for steering a U.S. economy that is still grappling with inflation while drawing sharp distinctions with Mr. Trump, who has promised more tax cuts and tariffs.
Ms. Harris has been an ardent defender for the White House’s economic agenda during the Biden administration, promoting the benefits of legislation such as the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. But as an attorney general and a senator, she was at times more progressive than the president, pushing for universal health care while calling for more generous tax benefits for working-class Americans and paying for them with bigger tax increases on companies.
In recent weeks, Ms. Harris has embarked on an economic “opportunity tour,” making the case that wage increases have been outpacing inflation, that manufacturing jobs are growing and that Democrats have been fighting to forgive student loan debt. Those arguments now foreshadow the case she will be making to voters as she runs against Mr. Trump.
“Sometimes we get a bum rap as Democrats,” Ms. Harris said at an event in San Francisco this month, adding, “But we have also addressed longstanding issues that are obstacles to the creation of wealth.”
Here’s a look at positions Ms. Harris has taken on the economy.
Taxes
As a presidential candidate, Ms. Harris proposed replacing Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts with a monthly refundable tax credit worth up to $500 for people earning less than $100,000. The policy, known as the LIFT the Middle Class Act, was unveiled in 2018 and aimed to address the rising cost of living by providing middle-class and working families with money to help pay for everyday expenses. She framed it as a way to close the wealth gap in the United States.
In 2019, Ms. Harris proposed increasing estate taxes on the wealthy to pay for a $300 billion plan to raise teacher salaries. In what was billed as the “largest federal investment in teacher pay in U.S. history,” the plan would have given the average teacher in America a $13,500 pay increase.
Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris did have some differences when vying for the Democratic nomination. Notably, Ms. Harris wanted to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 35 percent, which is higher than the 28 percent that Mr. Biden had proposed.
Housing
Last week, the Biden administration proposed a plan to compel corporate landlords to cap rent increases at 5 percent and called on Congress to back investments in more affordable housing units.
Ms. Harris made affordable housing a priority during her tenure in the Senate and her presidential campaign, but took a different approach. She proposed the Rent Relief Act, which would have provided refundable tax credits allowing renters who earn less than $100,000 to recoup housing costs in excess of 30 percent of their incomes.
To help the poorest, Ms. Harris also called for providing emergency relief funding for the homeless and for spending $100 billion in communities where people have traditionally been unable to get home loans because of discrimination.
Trade
During a Democratic primary debate in late 2019, Ms. Harris called Mr. Trump “erratic” on trade policy and said his tariff wars had hurt soybean farmers in Iowa, who faced foreign retaliation. Ms. Harris said she would be focused on bolstering American exports and declared, “I am not a protectionist Democrat.”
When it came to China, Ms. Harris said Beijing needed to be held accountable for stealing intellectual property and dumping heavily subsidized exports into foreign markets.
Last week, Ms. Harris echoed her earlier criticism of Mr. Trump when discussing his plan to impose 10 percent tariffs on all imports into the United States. She said such a policy would inflate the cost of gas, groceries and clothing.
“His tariffs would increase the cost of everyday expenses for families,” Ms. Harris said at an event in North Carolina.
Regulation
Ms. Harris, who served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017, has also focused heavily on consumer protection. In 2016, she threatened Uber with legal action if the company did not remove driverless cars from the state’s roads.
After the 2008 financial crisis, she pulled California out of a national settlement with big banks, leveraging her power to wrest more money from major mortgage lenders. She later announced that California homeowners would receive $12 billion in mortgage relief under the settlement.
However, Ms. Harris has faced criticism for failing to prosecute OneWest Bank or its chief executive at the time, Steven T. Mnuchin, after California’s Justice Department found that it had committed “widespread misconduct” in its foreclosure practices. Mr. Mnuchin went on to become Mr. Trump’s Treasury secretary.