Harris tests an early economic message on teachers

Kamala Harris hinted on Thursday at the economic message she may lay out as the Democratic presidential frontrunner, weaving student debt forgiveness and affordable child care into a larger picture of optimism for the country.

The vice president sought to connect education with the economy at the American Federation of Teachers convention in Houston, even as she avoided policy specifics or big divergences from the administration.

“We see a future with affordable health care, affordable child care and paid leave, not for some but for all,” Harris said to the throngs of teachers in the audience. “We see a future where every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive, and a future where no teacher has to struggle with the burden of student loan debt.”

The speech was the latest in a string of steady public appearances from Harris after her sudden entrance into the presidential race earlier this week. Since President Joe Biden dropped out on Sunday, Harris delivered remarks at the campaign’s headquarters in Delaware on Monday, campaigned in Wisconsin on Tuesday and addressed a historically Black sorority gathering in Indiana on Wednesday.

And only five days into her candidacy, Harris is still honing her arguments across a range of issues.

But unlike earlier in the week, her Thursday speech didn’t delve into former President Donald Trump’s felonies. Instead, she tackled their broad policy contrasts.

Harris emphasized access to child care and health care, but specifically underscored the current administration’s student loan debt relief efforts for public servants, including teachers. The Education Department has approved about $69 billion in debt forgiveness for nearly 1 million borrowers through a public service loan forgiveness program. It was one of her only detailed policy references.

Her speech to the nation’s second-largest teacher’s union followed the Commerce Department’s Thursday announcement that the economy grew last quarter at a strong 2.8 percent annual pace. AFT President Randi Weingarten also sought to play up the economic opportunity Harris would help ensure.

Harris is part of the “most pro-labor, pro-worker, pro-family, pro-public education administration” in history, Weingarten said, arguing that the administration “created the strongest economic recovery in our lifetimes.”

The vice president also used her speech to flick at issues that could rally young voters. Harris criticized the so-called Don’t Say Gay laws that restrict discussion of sexual orientation in some states , hit at largely Republican-led book bans and pressed for gun safety legislation — all largely in line with Biden’s previous statements, but from a different messenger.

“While you teach students about our nation's past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation's true and full history, including book bans,” Harris said. “We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books. Can you imagine?”

Her remarks were also a thank you to a key constituency. AFT was the first union this week to endorse Harris.

“We face a choice between two very different visions for our nation, one focused on the future and the other focused on the past,” she said. “And we are fighting for the future.”