WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Vice President Kamala Harris has stirred up enthusiasm among Democrats as the party’s presidential nominee, shaking up a race that had previously left voters unenthusiastic about a 2020 rematch.
President Joe Biden listened to calls from within his own party to bow out of the 2024 presidential race and threw his support behind Harris to beat Donald Trump in November. More notable Democrats endorsed Harris in the following days.
Harris later secured enough Democratic delegate votes to become the party’s nominee at the beginning of August.
“It’s not going to be easy. But we’re going to get this done,” Harris said on a call with supporters earlier this month. “As your future president, I know we are up to this fight.”
Here’s where Kamala Harris stands on top-line issues, during her time as U.S. senator, California attorney general and vice president. You can also read similar policy breakdowns for former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Here’s a look at Harris’ policy positions and political views as she competes for your vote:
- Policing and gun reform
- Immigration and the border
- Abortion
- Economy and inflation
- Palestine and Israel
- Social Security
- Crime
- Ukraine
- China
- Climate Change
Harris as VP
Harris is the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American person to hold this position.
Harris joined the Biden ticket in August 2020 after a contentious primary season during which she said Biden made “very hurtful” comments about his past work with segregationist senators and slammed his opposition to busing as schools began to integrate in the 1970s.
The two, however, returned to a warm relationship as president and vice president.
Following the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Harris became a vocal defender of abortion rights. She toured a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota that provides abortion services. It was the first time in U.S. history, according to the White House, that a president or vice president had visited a clinic that provides abortion services.
Also in March, Biden tapped Harris to lead a White House effort to tackle the migration challenge at the U.S. southern border and work with Central American nations to address root causes of the problem.
“When she speaks, she speaks for me,” Biden said at the time, noting her past work as California’s attorney general makes her specially equipped to lead the administration’s response.
Policing and gun reform
Harris took a tough stand on policing in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police. She co-sponsored legislation in the Senate that would’ve banned police from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants, set a national use-of-force standard and created a national police misconduct registry, among other things. It would have also reformed the qualified immunity system that shields officers from liability.
The list in the legislation included practices Harris did not vocally fight to reform while leading California’s Department of Justice. And while she now wants independent investigations of police shootings, she didn’t support a 2015 California bill that would have required her office to take on such cases.
In June, as vice president, Harris said that more needed to be done at the federal level to prevent gun violence during a campaign stop in Maryland.
Harris, after high-profile shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, called for a ban on assault-style weapons.
Immigration and the border
Among Republicans, Harris has the ironic moniker of “border czar,” owing to her work wherein she oversaw diplomacy with Mexico and the Northern Triangle as a means of addressing “root causes” of migration.
Biden gave her the responsibility of manning everything immigration along the southern border in 2021, with her roles, according to the White House at the time, to stem the arrival of “irregular migrants.”
As recently as this week at the Republican National Convention, Republicans heavily criticized the Biden-Harris approach to the border, a hot-button issue this election cycle.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, migrant crossings into the U.S. from Mexico hit record highs at the end of 2023.
Close to 250,000 crossed during December 2023, surpassing the previous high of 224,000 encounters in May 2022, also under the Biden-Harris watch.
Harris announced in March that $5.2 billion in pledges from private companies had been made to prop up Central American communities in an effort to deter illegal entry to the U.S. under her guidance.
“The problems, of course, did not occur overnight, and the solutions will not be achieved overnight,” Harris said of the border at the time.
Abortion
Harris is aligned with Biden in her view on abortion, going as far as saying last month “everything is at stake” regarding women’s reproductive rights.
The vice president is in favor of ensuring all American women have access to legal abortions.
“Every person of whatever gender should understand that, if such a fundamental freedom such as the right to make decisions about your own body can be taken, be aware of what other freedoms may be at stake,” Harris said in a joint MSNBC interview with Hadley Duvall, an abortion rights advocate from Kentucky who was raped by her stepfather as a child.
In June, Harris falsely wrote on X that Donald Trump would ban abortion nationwide. She then added: “President Joe Biden and I will do everything in our power to stop him and restore women’s reproductive freedom.”
Harris also visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota in March, describing the banning or heavy restriction of abortions as “immoral.”
“How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need,” Harris said at the time. “We have to be a nation that trusts women.”
Economy and inflation
The vice president’s economic agenda includes tax increases for the wealthy and corporations from the current 21% to 28%. She would use that money to spur investments in housing and increase tax credits for parents.
Harris would focus on growing the economy with investments in small businesses and entrepreneurs, including a $50K tax deduction for small businesses.
She has also focused on lowering the cost of living when it comes to necessities, including efforts to make housing more affordable and homeownership more accessible as well as proposing the first federal ban on price gouging for groceries.
Harris has spoken positively about the Biden administration’s economic impact, including during a May White House event.
“Because of the Inflation Reduction Act — the infrastructure act — we are dropping trillions of dollars on the streets of America right now to build back up our roads and our bridges, our sidewalks, to invest in a clean energy economy, to deal with the climate crisis in a way that is about building up adaptation and resilience,” Harris said.
That same month, she also touched on a desire for all Americans to fiscally succeed.
“I believe that America’s economy is powered by the ambition and aspiration of our people … to innovate, to create and to prosper; therefore, to grow our economy, we must invest in that ambition and those aspirations,” Harris said at a Detroit event.
“I believe every person in our country then must have access to the opportunity to compete to succeed and to thrive.”
During her time as a senator, Harris tried to get a bill passed that would have made tax credits up to $6,000 available for low- to middle-income households.
Harris has also been a strong proponent of forgiving student debt, spearheading the Biden administration’s move to abolish debt for several hundred thousand students at Corinthian Colleges.
In 2017, she co-sponsored Bernie Sanders’ proposal for free college for middle-class students at four-year public schools and all who attended two-year institutions.
Palestine
The war in Gaza has been a contentious issue among Democrats, with the party split between those who are in favor of continued support for Israel and those who want to see a cease-fire due to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
Harris skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech before Congress for a previously scheduled campaign event, a sign she might be less supportive than Biden has been.
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish, and she has long-standing ties to Jewish and Israeli interest groups. She has expressed support for the U.S.-Israel alliance, asserting Israel’s right to defend itself and echoing comments about the dangers of Hamas.
However, she’s also been more critical than Biden when it comes to civilian casualties in Gaza. She has actively supported a temporary cease-fire and called on Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza. Harris has also expressed empathy for college protesters, noting that they are expressing a reasonable emotional response to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Social Security
Harris hasn’t offered a lot of specifics on her plans to protect Social Security, but her legislative history gives some insight into the direction she may take. As a senator, Harris co-sponsored the Social Security Expansion Act, which would have increased benefits for some and changed how annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) are calculated. It also would have required wealthy Americans to pay more into the system.
The Biden administration has also pushed for removing the cap on Social Security taxes. Currently, they are capped at $168,600 with income above that not taxed. The administration has proposed removing that and taxing incomes above $400,000. It’s an idea with bipartisan appeal among voters.
The administration has also pushed for changes to COLA that would reflect the increased medical expenses older adults face, as well as raising the amount seniors receive.
Crime
Harris in April hosted reality television star Kim Kardashian at the White House to discuss criminal justice reform, after the Biden administration granted clemency to people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.
The U.S. imprisons more people than any other country. About 1 in 5 of those 1.9 million people are behind bars for a drug-related offense. Black and Latino people are disproportionately incarcerated, and drug law reform has the broadest support among young voters. Black, Latino and young voters tend to favor Democrats.
“Everybody makes mistakes, and for some that might rise to the level of being a crime,” Harris said at the White House. “But is it not the sign of a civil society that we allow people a way to earn their way back and give them the support and the resources they need to do that?”
Harris’ record as California attorney general, however, drew the ire of many progressives during her 2020 bid for the presidency.
During her seven years as a district attorney, and then six as attorney general, she defended the cash bail system in a pair of federal court cases, shifting course only weeks before she entered the Senate.
As a presidential candidate in 2020, she pledged a wholesale overhaul of the country’s criminal justice system, arguing for marijuana legalization, bail reform and a moratorium on the death penalty.
War in Ukraine
Last month, Harris announced the U.S. would donate over $1.5 billion to Ukraine, with the funds coming from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The financial assistance is intended to repair infrastructure and aid in security, energy and refugee assistance.
Harris has been in lockstep with Biden with regard to helping Ukraine amid its war with Russia.
During the June summit regarding peace in Ukraine, Harris spoke about America’s commitment to the Eastern European nation.
“I am here today to stand with Ukraine and the leaders from around the world in support of a just and lasting peace,” Harris said.
“As we look forward to that peace and work toward that, the United States is committed to helping Ukraine rebuild.”
After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February, Harris expressed her belief that the U.S. must be of assistance.
“It is in the strategic interest of the United States to continue our support,” Harris said. “International rules and norms are on the line, including the fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
China
Harris criticized Trump’s trade war with China, saying the tariffs he imposed cost thousands of manufacturing jobs and drove farmers into bankruptcy. However, the Biden administration not only kept the tariffs in place but increased some of them.
On security and human rights, Harris has come out against China, calling the country a “bully” for its actions in the South China Sea. She has also reiterated America’s commitment to helping Taiwan defend itself from Chinese aggression.
Harris has also spoken out regarding human rights in China. She proposed sanctioning Hong Kong leaders involved in crackdowns on democracy and also co-sponsored the Uyghur Human Rights Act. The law mandates regular reporting on the imprisonment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities into camps. China has denied accusations of human rights violations and says the camps are education centers.
Climate Change
Harris has a long record of advocating for efforts to combat climate change, calling for swift and urgent action as the world continues to break heat records and head toward critical climate tipping points.
As a legislator and vice president, Harris has backed policies including the establishment of green banks, increased pay for clean energy workers, incentives for electric vehicles, electrification of school buses and efforts to remove lead pipes.
Harris has also supported climate justice, pursuing prosecution of environmental crimes to protect low-income and minority communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change and pollution.
NewsNation’s Andrew Dorn contributed to this article.