Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has been criticized for being vague and thin on policy proposals since she announced her presidential candidacy in July, but her campaign posted a list of her policy positions on its website less than 48 hours before her scheduled debate with Donald Trump on Tuesday.
The move by Harris’ campaign comes as she and the former Republican president enter the final week of the Nov. 5 election and as a new poll released Sunday showed the race between the candidates is tight. Vice President Harris initially had a significant boost against Trump after replacing Joe Biden as the top candidate for the party’s presidential nominee.
A national poll released Sunday by The New York Times and Siena College showed Trump leading Harris by one point and finding that many voters want to know more about the vice president’s policies.
A separate poll conducted by CBS/YouGov showed a close race in key battleground states, with Harris holding slight leads in Michigan and Wisconsin, but a tie in Pennsylvania.
By Sunday evening, the Harris campaign posted a list of policy positions on its website, organized into four main sections focused on the economy, “fundamental freedoms,” safety and crime, and national security.
The campaign promised to build an “opportunity economy and lower costs for families,” implementing economic proposals such as tax cuts for the middle class and making homeownership more attainable by giving first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 for a down payment.
Among her list of proposals, Harris said she would also work to make child care more affordable, strengthen Social Security and help small businesses by expanding the start-up expense deduction for new businesses from $5,000 to $50,000.
Harris promised to reduce health care costs, raise the minimum wage, eliminate tip taxes for service and hospitality workers and address competitive practices by large corporations.
Harris’ campaign has said she would block a nationwide abortion ban and that if Congress passes a bill restoring reproductive freedom nationwide, she would sign it into law. She also plans to enact anti-discrimination laws against LGBTQ+ Americans in health care, housing, education and more, according to her campaign website.
On the border, the campaign said Harris would revive and sign into law the bipartisan border security bill that Republicans blocked to thwart Biden’s congressional gains during his reelection bid. Harris understands the need for “strong border security and a path to citizenship,” the campaign’s website said.
On gun violence and crime, Harris would ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks and support red flag laws if elected president, the campaign said, adding that she would “continue to invest in funding law enforcement, including hiring and training police officers and those who support them.”
Harris is committed to ending the opioid epidemic and combating fentanyl, her campaign said, adding that a bipartisan border bill she plans to sign would fund detection technology to stop even more illegal drugs.
On foreign policy and national security, Harris pledged to stand with America’s allies, confront dictators, “take a leading role on the world stage,” and “America, not China, will win the 21st century competition, and we will strengthen, not abandon, our global leadership. ” She also pledged to invest in American workers, innovation and industry.
The list of policy proposals also mentioned Israel’s war in Gaza, with Harris saying she would “always defend Israel’s right to self-defense and always ensure Israel’s ability to defend itself.”
The website said she and Biden, who ended his reelection campaign on July 21, were “working to end the war in Gaza to ensure Israel’s security, release the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, and enable the Palestinian people to realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
At the end of each policy section on its website, the Harris campaign compared and contrasted its positions with Project 2025, a conservative roadmap for a second term for Trump, created by the Heritage Foundation, a powerful conservative think tank.
Among other things, Project 2025 calls for the abolition of the education sector, along with cuts to environmental protections, LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights.
Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025 after criticism and backlash that the group’s proposals are too far-right, but many of the project’s architects and groups have ties to Trump, and many of its policy goals are in line with what Trump has said he would do if he wins the November election.