Harris campaign zeros in on top priority for Black voters: the economy

“Her record shows that she is a fighter for Black people, vulnerable people, people that are being harmed, and there are so many of us being harmed by the economic system in this country,” said Kristin Powell. 

The Harris campaign is zeroing in on the economy, evidenced by Vice President Kamala Harris’ policy rollout to date, which aims to bring down the cost of living, and the launch of a $370 million ad blitz.

The Democratic presidential nominee’s singular focus on economic issues, paired with comprehensive policy prescriptions to address them, are being praised by political leaders and advocates who tell theGrio that Harris is strategically and effectively addressing what is a top concern for American voters, particularly Black Americans. 

“It shows that the campaign firmly has its feet on the ground, not its head up in the air,” said Svante Myrick, president of People For the American Way, a progressive advocacy group. He told theGrio, “The campaign seems to really be aware of what voters actually care about.”

In a new ad released on Tuesday, the Harris campaign acknowledged that costs for Americans are “too high” and called out corporations for “gouging” families and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for wanting to give them tax cuts. The ad proclaims, “Kamala Harris is focused on you,” adding, “We need a leader who has their back.”

During several campaign stops since becoming a presidential candidate, Harris has vowed to make “building up the middle class” a “defining goal” of her presidency if elected on Nov. 5. 

To date, Harris has announced several policies, including a federal ban on corporate price gouging for food and groceries, child tax credits up to $6,000 per child, and tax credits aimed at lowering health care premiums for those insured under the Affordable Care Act. 

Harris’ proposals would be particularly meaningful for Black Americans. A previous child tax credit signed into law by President Joe Biden, which has since expired, helped to reduce poverty for Black households significantly. Black Americans are also disproportionately saddled with medical debt. 

To address the cost of housing, Harris is proposing up to $25,000 for down payments to help first-time homebuyers. She aims to incentivize home builders to build up to three million additional housing units. Today, the racial gap between Black and white homeownership (30%) is higher than it was in 1960 (27%), according to data from Harvard University and the Urban Institute. 

“That housing policy is the best I’ve ever seen from a national politician,” said Myrick, who ran for and won the mayoral office in Ithaca, New York, in 2011 with the primary goal of ending homelessness.

The progressive leader said that politicians and policymakers have known for years that housing costs are directly related to housing availability and that “regulatory reform” and “incentives” are needed to address this.

“The past several presidential administrations have known it, but they’ve been so afraid of that fight at the local level, going into the Silicon Valleys of the world, the Beverly Hills of the world,” Myrick explained. “They’ve been afraid to take that on. She is not.”

The Harris campaign announced that the vice president would also unveil new policies on Wednesday as part of her economic agenda. These include $5,000 to $50,000 in tax deductions for startup expenses for small businesses. Harris will also announce a goal of securing 25 million new small business applications in her first term if elected.

Many of Harris’ economic policies announced so far directly align with the top concerns of Black voters, according to the Black Census, a 2023 survey of more than 200,000 Black voters conducted by Black Futures Lab. Based on the findings of the Black Census, the group’s political action fund’s Black economic agenda proposes various solutions to bring down the costs of housing, child care and health care. 

“Most of what she said in her agenda is aligned with our economic agenda, and we have shared it with her office and many partners, and we hope that she will endorse it,” said Kristin Powell, principal of the Black to the Future Action Fund.  

The group would also like to see an increase in the federal minimum wage, strengthened rent regulations and other policies that Powell notes can be achieved on the state and local level. Nonetheless, Powell told theGrio that Black to the Future Action Fund is “excited” to see a presidential candidate like Harris prioritizing economic policies that speak to the heart of Black communities. 

“Her record shows that she is a fighter for Black people, vulnerable people, people that are being harmed and there are so many of us being harmed by the economic system in this country,” said Powell. 

Harris, who is reintroducing herself to Americans and her story of being raised by a single mother in middle-class Oakland, California, will tackle the issues of the economy with “compassion and understanding of what it means to be low income, to have to struggle, to have to work,” said Powell. 

She added, “We need leadership from people who know what it’s like to be part of Middle America.”

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis told theGrio “there’s a renewed focus” on Harris’ personal story and her record as the district attorney in San Francisco, attorney general in California and later as a U.S. senator. 

“It’s resonating with people,” said Davis, who rallied with Harris in Pittsburgh on Monday for a Labor Day stop with President Biden. 

Lt. Gov. Davis predicted that Harris would “absolutely” win Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state, with her economic message to voters.

“In the relatively short time that she’s ascended to the top of the ticket, she’s been laser-focused on the issues affecting working-class people, and I don’t think that’s going to let up,” he said.

Trump and Republicans have aimed at putting Harris on defense regarding the economy, blaming current inflation costs on her and Biden. However, Democrats point out that inflation is at pre-pandemic lows and argue that Biden and Harris spent much of their time in office saving an economy mishandled by Trump when he was in office. 

“He left us with an economy that was on its knees, and businesses were shuttered because he let a pandemic get out of control,” said Davis, adding, “I don’t think folks want to return to that.”

The lieutenant governor said Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which economists tell theGrio mostly benefited wealthy Americans and corporations, failed to benefit working-class people. 

“The people in places like McKeesport, where I grew up, a small steel-working town outside of Pittsburgh, they didn’t benefit from Trump’s tax cuts,” said Davis.

The tax cuts also slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, which Harris proposed raising to 28%. She also wants to raise taxes for Americans making more than $400,000 annually.

Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist who advises several national campaigns, said the economic agendas between Harris and Trump could not be more different. 

“If you just look at the settings of how the plans were introduced, one was introduced in front of the American people in battleground North Carolina. The other one was introduced in front of his golf club,” Seawright told theGrio. “That tells you everything about where their priorities are and how they really feel about their policies.”

He continued, “One has details, and one does not. And I think that every time Donald Trump speaks about his policy agenda … it’s just all sound bites to tickle the ears of some in the media and his base, but there’s no depth or width to it.”

Seawright added, “Whereas Kamala Harris tells us what she’s going to do … [and] how she’s going to pay for it and what it actually means for this country.”

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