Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S., September 20, 2024.
Jim Vondruska | Reuters
Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday said she would work to usher in a U.S. manufacturing comeback, an appeal to the business community and an attempt to gain an edge over her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.
In a speech at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, Harris announced a proposal to offer tax credits for companies that expand “good union jobs in steel and iron and manufacturing communities.”
The Democratic presidential nominee also pledged to invest in “sectors that will define the next century,” name-checking emerging technologies like biomanufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and the blockchain.
In tandem with the speech, the Harris campaign released an 82-page policy blueprint, which summarized the economic proposals she has laid out so far.
It comes as national polls show voters still wanting to learn more about the vice president and her policy priorities.
The speech was also part of a broader effort to frame Harris as a partner, not an antagonist, to the business community, a direct counterpoint to attacks from Trump.
“I believe that most companies are working hard to do the right thing by their customers and the employees who depend on them,” Harris said. “We must work with them to grow our economy.”
Trump has been working to define Harris as an extremist — he referred to her as “Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate” in a social media post Sept. 12 — and a threat to the U.S. economy.
“If Kamala Harris gets four more years, she will deindustrialize the United States and destroy our country,” Trump said Tuesday at an event in Savannah, Georgia, where he also rolled out new manufacturing proposals.
During his Georgia speech, Trump said if he were elected to a second term, he would introduce an expanded tax credit for research and development expenses, appoint a specialized “manufacturing ambassador” and impose hardline tariffs on imports, which he said would incentivize domestic production.
For most of her eight-week-old presidential campaign, Harris’ economic pitch has dovetailed neatly with President Joe Biden‘s agenda.
Harris has focused on lowering the costs of food, housing and child care, in part by accusing corporate America of “price gouging,” or manipulating and inflating consumer prices to far exceed producers’ costs, resulting in soaring profit margins that are untethered from productivity.
In August, Harris went so far as to propose a federal ban on so-called price gouging in the food and grocery sectors.
But that idea was panned by economists from across the political spectrum, who argued that little evidence exists to suggest that corporate price fixing is a primary driver of high prices.
Over the past several weeks, Harris has softened her rhetoric toward corporate America.
Last Wednesday, for example, in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Harris condemned price gouging, but quickly clarified that only a handful of corporations actually engage in it.
“Some corporations, and it’s very few of them that do this, but they jack up prices to make it more difficult for desperate people to just get by,” Harris said.
Wednesday’s speech was the latest step in Harris’ tone shift, with less of Biden’s corporate scolding, and more of his industrial policy goals.
“Not only must we build the industries of the future in America, we must also build them faster,” Harris said, adding that she would work to “cut red tape and get things moving faster.”
Harris, however, also made clear that if elected, she would be not shy away from holding businesses accountable.
“I believe companies need to play by the rules, respect the rights of workers and unions and abide by fair competition,” Harris said. “And if they don’t, I will hold them accountable.”
With just 41 days until Election Day and voters in several states already casting early ballots, the Harris campaign took her Pittsburgh address as an opportunity to continue chipping away at Trump’s longstanding edge with voters when it comes to the economy.
Recent polls suggest Harris’ efforts on this front are already bearing fruit.
The Financial Times-Michigan Ross September poll of 1,002 registered voters found Harris with a slim 2 percentage-point lead over Trump on the economy.
The poll was taken in the two days following the first Harris-Trump presidential debate on Sept. 10.
Harris’ slight 2-point advantage was within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, but reflected Harris catching up to her Republican opponent.
Several other high-quality polls conducted after the debate show Harris narrowing Trump’s advantage with voters on economic issues by double digits, including polls from AP-NORC, NBC News and Fox News.
