Wake up with the Washington Examiner: The party is over for Democrats, and Trump and Harris try to raise the roofs

The parade lap for the 2024 presidential contest is over. For the last month, Vice President Kamala Harris has basked in the sunshine of her “brat summer” candidacy. She stepped into the void left by President Joe Biden stepping aside, or getting pushed out of, his race for reelection.

Democrats immediately rejoiced at the change. Months of sluggishness and a pallor of gloom, followed by weeks of utter dread that Biden had proven incapable of being competitive with former President Donald Trump, were wiped away when voters were handed the thing they had been telling pollsters they wanted — someone, anyone different from Biden or Trump.

In Chicago on Thursday night, Harris capped the four-day convention-turned-party. Democrats had unified around a candidate. The promised chaos of anti-Israel protesters storming the United Center and distracting everyone from the task at hand was nearly nonexistent.

And Harris appeared to have recognized she can’t hang around at the party all night if she wants to beat Trump in November.

Her acceptance speech was heavy on biography but touched on policy — something she’s been criticized for ignoring, and when she’s not dodging positions, she is changing them.

“On behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey,” Harris told the crowd on Thursday.

“On behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination,” she said.

Having tried to open up the Democratic tent, Harris hinted at the brass tacks she’s going to try to put on the board despite not having a policy page on her campaign website.

She repeated items that have been floated in recent weeks — tax credits for first-time home buyers, tax cuts for the middle class, and codifying Roe v. Wade.

Trump sat on the sidelines and offered criticisms of his opponent throughout her speech.

“She didn’t mention China, she didn’t mention fracking, she didn’t mention Energy, she didn’t mention, meaningfully, Russia and Ukraine, she didn’t mention the big subjects of the day, that are destroying our Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “There are 60 million people in poverty in the U.S., under their watch, and she doesn’t even talk about them!”

Harris will have plenty of opportunities to talk about her positions over the next 75 days. She hasn’t announced when she will sit down for her first major interview as the nominee or when she will hold a press conference, but she will go head-to-head with Trump next month when the two clash for their first presidential debate.

Democrats have been revving their engines, showing off just how much power they have. Now, the candidates are warmed up, and it’s a race to the finish.

Click here to get caught up on Harris’s acceptance speech and everything else you might have missed on the last day of the DNC.

Voters are saying their concerns about the economy and inflation are more tangible than just a general dread about the country’s finances. Economic uncertainty, unpredictable and high interest rates, and soaring costs are hurting pocketbooks during weekly trips to the grocery store and are making younger voters feel as if they are never going to be able to afford to buy a home.

A presidential contest that has been light on policy proposals has deviated to address this looming problem, Congressional Reporter Rachel Schilke wrote for us this morning in a deep dive into the thorny questions about how Harris and Trump are reported to tackle the housing crisis.

The fight cropped up during the Democratic National Convention this week, with speakers opting to inject wonkery into an otherwise celebratory affair.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) has used his DNC counterprogramming tour to hammer the Biden administration’s immigration policies as exacerbating the housing crisis. He has argued the millions of illegal immigrants who have crossed the border in the last 3 1/2 years are creating too much competition for too few homes.

Democrats and Republicans are all worried about what their candidates are going to do about housing because, as Mark Calabria , former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency under the Trump administration, told Rachel, it’s a cost that hasn’t moderated — it’s stubbornly high.

Harris has received more support for her housing plan than her solution to “price gouging” — which has been met with criticisms she is suggesting price controls that are widely rejected by economists as a tool that doesn’t work.

Her housing plan is a bigger version of Biden’s promise to address the shortage. Harris has floated building 3 million new homes, offering tax incentives for builders creating starter homes, and $40 billion for local governments to address shortages.

However, there’s a risk her plan of throwing more money into the mix could have a similar effect as the American Rescue Plan had on inflation.

A trickier path forward, one that former President Barack Obama hinted at in his speech at the DNC this week, is doing something about the red tape that prevents new homes from getting built due to local and federal regulations.

Democrats aren’t united on whether simply increasing the supply is going to be enough if people still don’t have enough cash to put down a payment on a home, though.

“When I go into LA every weekend, I drive by all of the new units that are being built that are supposed to be affordable for rentals,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) told activists .

Besides cracking down on illegal immigration, Trump and Vance are turning their attention to the zoning problems and regulations stopping the construction of new homes on federal land.

“According to the 2024 Republican Party platform , under a Trump administration, Republicans will reduce mortgage rates by ‘slashing Inflation, open limited portions of Federal Lands to allow for new home construction, promote homeownership through Tax Incentives and support for first-time buyers, and cut unnecessary Regulations that raise housing costs,’” Rachel wrote. “The former president’s campaign has also said he would lower housing costs by encouraging the construction of housing on the ‘periphery of cities and suburban areas’ where land is cheapest.”

Trump has leaned into his history in real estate to assure voters he can make headway on this problem.

“Your permits, your permitting process. Your zoning, if — and I went through years of zoning. Zoning is like ... it’s a killer,” Trump told Bloomberg. “But we’ll be doing that, and we’ll be bringing the price of housing down.”

Click here to read more about how Trump and Harris are approaching the housing crisis.

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Biden has nothing on his public schedule.

Harris will travel back to Washington, D.C., from Chicago at 4 p.m. Eastern time. She does not have any other appearances on her public schedule.

Robert F Kennedy Jr. is holding an event in Phoenix, Arizona, at 2 p.m. Eastern, and he is expected to drop out of the presidential race.

Trump will hold an event in Glendale, Arizona, at 6 p.m. Eastern.