After Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race for the presidency in mid-July, she was down 11 points against former President and GOP rival Donald Trump on the economy, per a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Now, after weeks of hammering her economic policy message to voters, she’s only 2 points behind Trump in the same poll, within the margin of error.
The persistence is paying off. And on Wednesday, Harris is expected to lay out her plan to grow the middle class while painting former President Donald Trump as “out of touch” with the problems everyday Americans are facing.
In what will be her third major economic policy speech of her campaign, Harris is expected to describe her economic philosophy as “pragmatic” and pursuing “practical, realistic solutions,” instead of being “bound by ideology,” according to a senior campaign official who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the not-yet-finalized speech. She is also expected to say she will be “unafraid to hold bad actors accountable,” as she has outlined with her price gouging ban policy proposal.
The speech will outline three pillars of Harris’ plan for what she calls an “Opportunity Economy,” including lowering costs, investing in American innovation and entrepreneurship, and leading the world in the industries of the future.
Harris previously spoke about lowering costs in her first economic policy speech in North Carolina, and her vision for American innovation and entrepreneurship in New Hampshire. Wednesday’s speech in Pittsburgh will act as the final pillar, focusing on leading industry in a city that was the centerpiece of American industrial manufacturing and labor movements.
“For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers,” Harris is expected to say. “Not those who build them. Not those who wire them. Not those who mop the floors.” She will describe Trump as having no intention to grow the middle class, because all he cares about is helping himself and billionaires like him.
Harris has been hammering home an economic agenda on the campaign trail in recent weeks, in an effort to cut into Trump’s lead on the issue with voters.
“What Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have to do is persuade enough voters she's with them enough on the economy to cut into an advantage that Trump might have,” George Washington University professor Peter Loge said earlier this month of Harris’ messaging strategy.
It seems to be working. A Morning Consult poll update Tuesday has Harris and Trump tied on the economy 46-46%, while in a Reuters September poll, Trump was up just 2 points on the economy, within the poll’s margin of error.
Harris has been regimented in presenting her economic plan to the public, presenting herself as someone who has lived in a middle-class household, who knows what it’s like to stretch a dime into a dollar, and who will fight for the middle class — while simultaneously framing Trump as out of touch.
“It's a way of distinguishing themselves as ‘we are in the middle class, we're fighting with the middle class,’ which is in contrast to Senator [JD] Vance and former President Trump, who are wealthy,” Loge said of Harris’ two previous speeches. “Governor Walz, pointing out he doesn't own any stocks so he can't have any conflicts of interest — it helps reinforce that narrative.”
Campaign surrogates have also stuck to the script in recent weeks: economy, economy, economy.
“There’s no question in my mind Donald Trump would be a disaster for the economy,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Spectrum News in an interview last week, speaking in her personal capacity.
“He has two main economic proposals: one was to cut taxes on billionaires who don't need a tax cut, and the other is to increase taxes on all imports which American people can't afford,” Raimondo said. “That would assume, if he's president, there'll be a 10% sales tax on everything we buy that comes from another country.”
Even members of Trump’s own party have been quick to distance themselves from his proposed tariffs.
Asked by a reporter if he was concerned that some of the tariff proposals by Trump could drive up costs for consumers or hurt bourbon exporters in Kentucky, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday “I’m not a fan of tariffs.”
“They raise prices for American consumers. I’m more of a free trade kind of Republican that remembers how many jobs are created by the exports that we engage in. So I’m not a tariff fan,” McConnell said during the weekly Republican leadership press conference.
Harris’ team was quick to blast out the moment in an email Tuesday night, criticizing Trump’s economic approach.
“Most middle class families cannot afford to miss one check. If you look at them raising $4,000 a year, you're going to have people that [are] going to be homeless, and you don't have to just take it from the economists either. Just use your common sense,” the campaign’s statement said, quoting Teamsters National Black Caucus Chair James Curbeam.