VP Kamala Harris charts her own economic path as presidential hopeful

The Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday in Chicago with a prime-time speech by President Joe Biden. And while Democrats will be touting his administration’s accomplishments, presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ economic message is taking a slightly different tone from what we’ve heard during the last 3½ years.

Among other things, the Biden administration has been focused on preventing a recession, which would have derailed the pandemic recovery. On that score, one could argue, it has succeeded.

“We have the best economy in the world right now. We had the best COVID economic response,” said Caitlin Legacki, a former senior adviser in Biden’s Commerce Department.

But Legacki conceded that the administration did initially miss an important detail: The macroeconomy doesn’t necessarily translate to the micro-level.

“When you’re talking to families and real Americans, they’re not really interested in how their standing compares to Europeans. They care about what’s happening in their own pocketbook,” she said. “And so I think early on, we probably could have been more responsive to that.”

Legacki added that Harris’ campaign has learned from that misstep. She’s now proposing things like limits on grocery price increases and down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

“She’s putting a clearer focus on language about helping, you know, working- and middle-class families and identifying some of the specific challenges that people face,” said Kathleen Dolan, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin.

But offering new plans means they’ll be up for scrutiny, and Republican challenger Donald Trump assailed Harris’ proposals over the weekend.

“After causing catastrophic inflation, Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls,” he said. “You saw that. Never worked before. Never, ever worked.”

Right now, Harris appears to have some leeway to chart a new path. A recent poll found that most Americans believe she had limited influence on the Biden administration’s economic policies.

At the convention this week, one of the Democrats’ key tasks will be to convince undecided voters that, under Harris, the next four years will be better for their pocketbooks than the last.