Harris pledges ‘pragmatic’ approach to the economy in Pittsburgh speech

Kamala Harris called for federal incentives to spur domestic manufacturing across a range of industries on Wednesday, ratcheting up her efforts in Pennsylvania to wrest blue-collar voters away from Donald Trump.

In a speech in Pittsburgh, the vice president pledged to invest in biomanufacturing, aerospace and artificial intelligence, “so that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to geothermal to advanced nuclear, are not just invented but built here in America by American workers.”

The speech came as Harris seeks to chip away at Trump’s advantage with voters on the economy, a top issue for voters across the country. The vice president cast herself as “pragmatic,” while adding some definition to a policy platform that Republicans have criticized as thin. Harris promised to eliminate degree requirements for federal jobs, double union apprenticeships in her first term and reform permitting to speed up building projects — though she was still light on specifics of how she’d implement her proposals.

And in an implicit rebuttal to Republicans’ characterization of her as a “Marxist,” Harris defined herself as both a “strong supporter of workers and unions” and a “capitalist,” bridging her own progressive record as a California senator to a more pro-business bid for president. She promised to be “practical” and “pragmatic in my approach” to the economy, seeking to reassure voters, some of whom have worried in public surveys that Harris is “too liberal.”

“I believe we shouldn’t be constrained by ideology, and instead, should seek practical solutions to problems,” Harris said. “Part of being pragmatic means taking good ideas from wherever they come.”

Harris also attacked Trump, saying he is “only interested in making life better for himself and people like himself, the wealthiest of Americans.”

In dueling speeches this week, Harris and Trump laid out competing visions for their economic plans, including how to reinvigorate domestic manufacturing. Trump, for his part, pledged further tax cuts and trade restrictions to “take other countries’ jobs” in a speech in Georgia on Tuesday. He committed to implementing 100 percent tariffs on cars made in Mexico, adding to his protectionist policies that he’s championed for nearly a decade.

But Harris’ economic agenda has been less clear. And her remarks in Pittsburgh marked an effort to flesh her plans out to voters.

“She’s trying to establish a set of economic positions that let voters know where she wants to take them in her presidency,” said Mark Longabaugh, a Democratic strategist who advised Bernie Sanders ’ presidential campaigns. “Filling in those blanks for her, if you look at the polling, is her central challenge.”

There are signs it’s starting to work for her, according to public polling. Earlier this spring, Trump frequently held double-digit leads over President Joe Biden on who voters favored to handle the economy. But in recent weeks, Harris narrowed that to a 5-point gap in a Fox News poll and to a 6-point gap in a USA Today-Suffolk University poll .

“The public has made up their mind about Trump, so to the degree that some haven’t, the battleground for [Harris] is on an economic front,” Longabaugh said.

But it’s still a gap that presents a “challenge” for the vice president in a close race, said Mike Mikus, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist, who said that even though “inflation is now down, people still have sticker shock at the grocery store.”

Opting to deliver her speech in western Pennsylvania, home to many blue-collar workers who have drifted from the Democratic Party, made it “the perfect place to take on corporations,” Mikus said. “Donald Trump co-opted that language, even though his policies were the opposite, and that’s why he’s able to do well in western Pennsylvania.”

In her speech, Harris hit the “biggest corporations” for continuing “to make record profits while wages have not kept up pace.” She also repeatedly returned to themes about her own middle-class upbringing and the pressures of caring for her ailing mother, grounding her speech in elements of her own biography.

Harris aides acknowledge that voters are still getting to know the vice president, who launched her presidential run in late July.

Harris also repeatedly attacked Trump and his own economic policies. She reminded voters of one of the president’s central 2016 campaign promises — keeping a Carrier plant in Indianapolis, Indiana, from offshoring jobs to Mexico. Even though some jobs stayed in Indiana, ultimately, the company eliminated hundreds of jobs and closed a second plant by 2020.

“On Trump’s watch, offshoring went up and manufacturing jobs went down across our country and across our economy,” Harris said. “All told, almost 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during his presidency, starting before the pandemic hit, making Trump one of the biggest losers ever on manufacturing.”

Democrats are hopeful that if voters in Pennsylvania hear Harris’ speech, especially some of the specifics to her plan around strengthening unions, she might break through to some because “organized labor cares deeply about domestic manufacturing,” said former Democratic Rep. Jason Altmire, who represented central Pennsylvania.

After the Teamsters withheld an endorsement from Harris recently, some Democrats in the Rust Belt expressed concern that Trump could have higher-than-expected support among union members.

“‘Made in America’ really resonates there, so that’s why she’s picked Pittsburgh to deliver this message,” he said.

Pittsburgh, a hub of Democratic support, was not necessarily the core target for her message, but rather the smaller towns and surrounding counties, where Democrats must “hit a certain threshold” by “losing by less,” Mikus said, because “that’s what Joe Biden was able to do in 2020, when Hillary Clinton came up short in 2016.”

Mikus argued that for Harris to repeat Biden’s victory in the state, she must reach white women without college degrees and union households, a pair of demographics where she can still make gains in these exurban communities.

“From a message standpoint, for these voters, it’s all about the jobs,” Mikus said.

In her speech, Harris reiterated her support for several other major economic efforts, including a federal ban on corporate price-gouging, expanding tax credits for new small businesses, extending the child tax credit and pledging to build 3 million new homes to address the housing shortage.

She also promised to “cut the cost of childcare and elder care,” as well as giving “all working people access to paid leave.” But the vice president has not yet detailed how a future administration might pay for these various proposals.

Much of Harris’ economic proposals are in line with what the Biden administration pushed, including the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act , which used tax incentives to spur domestic clean energy production. But in tone, Harris, unlike the president, appears more willing to acknowledge that many Americans may not yet be feeling the economy improving.

“The cost of living in America is still just too high. You know it, and I know it,” Harris said in her speech. “All of this is happening at a time when many of the biggest corporations continue to make record profits, while wages have not kept up pace.”