Where Kamala Harris stands on 10 key issues
- Published
Vice-President Kamala Harris has been riding high on a wave of favourable polls and energetic rallies since she became the Democratic Party's nominee for president. But what have we learned about her policies since she has taken on the party mantle?
Ms Harris released a detailed policy platform in early September offering voters a look at what a Harris-Walz administration might look like. The platform page, which focuses on her economic and foreign policy agenda, emphasises her most urgent priority to tackle the cost of living.
Here are her policy pledges.
Economy
As vice-president, she has been Mr Biden's partner in passing major economic legislation - regularly labelled "Bidenomics" - which included major investments in infrastructure and green energy.
Growth and jobs creation have been strong but inflation and high interest rates continue to hit American wallets.
In a convention acceptance speech focused on the economy, Ms Harris promised mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers, a tax credit for parents of newborns and bans on price gouging at the grocery store to help target inflation.
She said in her speech that her plans would create "an opportunity economy where everyone has a chance to compete and a chance to succeed".
In her first interview as the Democratic nominee with CNN, Ms Harris said that "one of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class", a theme that she has repeated on the campaign trail.
Immigration
Ms Harris's position on the border has changed over time to a more moderate one in this campaign.
On the campaign trail, the vice-president has reiterated her continued support for the hardline bipartisan border security deal that would have included hundreds of millions of dollars for border wall construction.
It was torpedoed by congressional Republicans earlier this year at Trump's urging.
It would have fast-tracked decisions on asylum cases, limited humanitarian parole, and expanded the authority to deport migrants.
Part of her policy proposal is to revive the border security bill and sign it into law.
She has also said there "should be consequences" for people who cross the US border unlawfully, though she once held a much more lenient position.
As vice-president, she was tasked with tackling the root causes of the record numbers of Central American migrants crossing the southern border. Those numbers spiked during the Biden administration, but have declined in recent months.
She helped raise $3bn - largely from private companies - for regional investments in hopes it would encourage residents to remain in their home countries.
Abortion
Ms Harris has long supported women's right to an abortion.
She has made abortion rights central to her campaign, and she continues to advocate for legislation that would enshrine reproductive rights nationwide.
“When Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United States, I will sign it into law,” she said at a rally for her 2024 campaign in Atlanta, Georgia.
She has reiterated that commitment several times, including during the ABC News debate with Donald Trump.
In her policy proposal, Ms Harris wrote she would "never allow a national abortion ban to become law".
Ms Harris was the first vice-president to visit an abortion clinic, and she toured the country after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022 to address state abortion bans - often framing the issue as one about personal freedom.
Nato and Ukraine aid
Ms Harris's early career focused largely on domestic issues and the state of California, but she has become more involved in foreign policy since she was elected to the US Senate.
As vice-president, she has met 150 world leaders and visited 21 countries.
She attended the Munich Security Conference in the past year, and delivered remarks in support of western security alliance Nato that denounced isolationism and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Ms Harris has vowed to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”, and represented the US at Kyiv's “peace conference” in Switzerland.
In her speech at the Democratic convention, she noted that she met President Volodymyr Zelensky to "warn him about Russia's plan to invade" five days before Russia invaded, and "helped mobilise a global response" after the war began.
The vice-president also pledged, if elected, to ensure that "America - not China - wins the competition for the 21st Century" and to shoulder the responsibility of US leadership.
Israel-Gaza War
Ms Harris has been a longtime advocate for a two-state solution, and she has called for an end to the war in Gaza.
In her convention acceptance speech, she pledged as president to ensure "that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination".
While serving as vice-president, she was one of the first members of the administration to call for an "immediate cease-fire", raise concerns over the "humanitarian catastrophe for Palestinians" and charge Israel with ending the conflict.
She raised these issues in what she called "frank and constructive" talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Washington in July.
She has not supported an arms embargo on Israel, however, as some on the US left have called for.
And when she debated with Trump, she said: "I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people."
At the party convention, she said she would "always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself".
In her CNN interview, Ms Harris indicated that she would focus on securing a ceasefire deal, which was President Biden's approach.
Taxes
In 2017, while a senator, Ms Harris supported a number of progressive tax programmes, co-sponsoring a bill with Bernie Sanders to expand social security for the elderly by increasing the tax rate on investments.
As a presidential candidate in 2019, she supported a corporate tax rate of 35%, up from 21%.
This was more aggressive than President Biden's proposal, which she also supported, of an increase to 28%.
A campaign official told the BBC that the vice-president would continue to back President Biden's proposal of not raising taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 (£310,000).
Ms Harris said during her DNC acceptance speech that she would "pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans".
At the time of the speech, the details of the tax cut were unclear.
The Harris campaign later filled in the detail, saying that through the restoration of the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit more Americans will be able to keep more of their income.
Restoring the expanded Child Tax Credit would give families with newborn children a $6,000 tax cut.
Healthcare
Ms Harris held fairly progressive views about health care earlier in her career. She supported expanding publicly-funded health-care programmes in the US that cover the elderly, youth with disabilities and poor.
This included backing Medicare-for-All, a progressive priority that would make all health care publicly funded. She later walked that position back.
Her campaign told the BBC that she would not push for a single-payer system if elected to the White House.
While vice-president, the White House has had health care successes. It reduced prescription drug costs, capped insulin prices at $35, allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices and capped out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare drug coverage.
On the campaign trail, she has said that she wants to erase billions of dollars in medical debt for Americans and would work with states on the issue.
Details of the plan remain thin, but when she was California's attorney general, Ms Harris often used anti-trust laws to keep insurers, hospitals and drug companies to address costs.
Crime
Ms Harris started her legal career prosecuting child abusers and sex traffickers before being elected district attorney of San Francisco, then California's attorney general.
Her offices increased conviction rates, particularly of violent criminals, though that history led to criticism from the progressive left, which at times labelled her "a cop" - though the right has accused her of being soft on crime.
Ms Harris has also used her past as a prosecutor to serve as a major contrast with her opponent, who was convicted on 34 charges in a hush-money scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election.
She made mention of his conviction and him being found liable for committing sexual abuse in her DNC acceptance speech.
Climate
As a prosecutor, Ms Harris defended California's climate laws and sued oil companies for environmental damage. She also called for climate change policies via a "Green New Deal" during her 2020 presidential campaign - some of which has come to fruition under the current administration.
During a CNN town hall in 2019, she said that "there is no question I'm in favour of banning fracking", which is a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock that can be damaging to the environment.
But she has gone back on that stance. During the presidential debate, she said she cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act - which opened up new leases for fracking companies - in addition to funnelling hundreds of billions of dollars to renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credit and rebate programs.
"My position is that we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil," she said.
Ms Harris said she will protect public lands and public health, lower household energy costs and hold polluters accountable to secure clear air and water if elected in November, according to her policy platform.
Gun laws
Ms Harris has a history of backing gun safety regulations throughout her political career, and she successfully defended California's gun laws when they faced legal challenges as the state's attorney general.
As vice-president, she has overseen the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and earlier this year announced resources to support the implementation of red-flag laws, which are aimed at keeping firearms from those who may harm themselves and others.
She also encouraged states to tap into $750m in federal funds that the Biden-Harris administration made available for crisis intervention programs.
Her policy platform includes a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines as well as a requirement for universal background checks.
During the debate she noted that both she and her vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz are gun owners.
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