Harris Honing New Economic Message That Leaves ‘Bidenomics’ Behind

Vice President Kamala Harris is sharpening her economic message to voters in the final weeks of the 2024 election, in an effort designed to draw a contrast with both Donald Trump and the “Bidenomics” agenda that President Joe Biden embraced before he dropped out of the race.
On the campaign trail Harris has dropped all mention of Bidenomics, a term the White House has often used — and Republicans have pilloried — to describe Biden’s push to boost domestic manufacturing, infrastructure and clean energy.
In its place Harris has pivoted to what she calls the “opportunity economy,” her plan to grow the middle class through tax cuts, a $6,000 child tax credit for new parents, assistance for first-time homebuyers and tax deductions for new small business startups, among other plans.
Harris laid out her agenda in detail Wednesday in a speech to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, where she cast herself as “pragmatic” pro-capitalist Democrat in the vein of Franklin Roosevelt.
The vice president used the speech, which her campaign billed as an important policy address, to make a pitch for job creation programs and argue that the economy works best for everyday Americans when private companies abide by “consistent and transparent rules of the road.”
“I believe an active partnership between government and the private sector is one of the most effective ways to fully unlock economic opportunity,” Harris said.
The rhetoric echoed Biden on some points. The president has urged big companies and wealthy individuals to pay their fair share in taxes and frequently says his policies are designed to grow the economy “from the ground up and the middle out, not the top down,” a jab at the Republican Party’s decades-long support for “trickle down” economics.
But Democrats argued that Harris has found a message that offers voters new ideas while also highlighting the Biden administration’s work in rebuilding the economy after the pandemic.
“She’s threading that needle of being able to point to the success that the Biden administration has had and what the future [economy] would look like” under a Harris presidency, said Tory Gavito, a Democratic strategist and president of the group Way to Win.
Harris’ focus on wealth creation, a theme she touched on in her Pittsburgh address, has helped to differentiate her from Biden and other recent Democratic Party leaders, said Christian Weller, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress.
“The thing that sets her apart from Democrats of the past 20, 30 years is that she emphasizes wealth, not just income,” Weller said. “The pandemic showed us people not only need income but they also need wealth to fall back on in emergencies.”
Of course, Harris’ primary task is contrasting her vision with Trump’s economic record in office and 2024 campaign proposals. Trump has floated plans to impose tariffs on most imports and proposed cutting the corporate tax rate from 21 to 15 percent for companies that produce goods in the United States.
Harris used her speech this week and other campaign events to argue Trump’s economic plans would benefit wealthy Americans and corporations.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, told Newsweek that Harris had “three and a half years to prove herself, and she has failed.”
“Personal savings are down, credit card debt is up, small business optimism is at a record-low, and people are struggling to afford homes, groceries, and gas. Every time Kamala speaks, it becomes increasingly clear that ONLY President Trump will Make America WEALTHY Again,” Leavitt said in a statement.
The Harris campaign did not respond to a Newsweek request for comment.
Harris’ tricky balancing act on the economy has been made harder still by persistent pessimism among consumers despite signs of solid economic growth.
The unemployment rate is near record lows. Inflation dropped to 2.5 percent in August from its peak of 9.1 percent under Biden in June of 2022, leading the Federal Reserve last week to cut the benchmark interest rate for the first time since March 2020.
“The economy is performing well,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, but that is being overshadowed by “the angst the typical American has about the economy.”
Harris “seems like she really has an uphill battle [to convince voters] the Biden administration has a very solid economic record,” said Lee McPheters, the director of an economic research center at Arizona State University.
The economy has been a winning issue for Trump for months. Trump consistently led Biden by wide margins on the economy and inflation before Biden dropped his bid for a second term, and polls show a majority of voters think he’d handle the issues better than Harris as well.
But the Harris campaign’s new economic message is starting to show some results.
According to a Fox News poll taken this month, 51 percent of registered voters preferred Trump on the economy compared to 46 percent who favored Harris on the issue. Trump had led Biden on the issue by 15 points in a Fox News poll in March.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll taken after the presidential debate Sept. 10 found that Trump had a 7 point lead over Harris on both the economy and inflation. Other national polls also show Trump’s lead on the economy shrinking in recent weeks.
Republicans acknowledged Harris has made some inroads on the issue, but argued she doesn’t have enough time before Election Day in November to sway voters who blame Biden and Harris for inflation that peaked at 9.1 percent in June of 2022.
“Harris is never going to overcome the baked-in advantages that the Trump campaign has on the issue,” said Terry Holt, a former senior campaign adviser to George W. Bush. Holt added, “she’s got a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.”