“What Harris\u2019s career has made clear is that she\u2019s more likely to pursue incremental progress than big, ambitious ideas. That\u2019s why if elected, it\u2019s likely that her administration would simply be an extension of the current one rather than a disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the campaign trail this week, several priorities have come into focus, with the economy and affordability still at the top of the list. Harris continues to talk about prioritizing the middle class, just as Biden did: \u201cBuilding up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,\u201d Harris said at her first major campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday. \u201cWhen our middle class is strong, America is strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To support that swath of Americans, improving the care economy \u2014 those services that focus on children and the elderly \u2014 could be one of the major policy areas she may come to prioritize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She would zero in on a straightforward policy agenda, said Carmel Martin, who served as the vice president\u2019s domestic policy adviser from 2022 to 2023: a focus on \u201ceconomic progress while bringing down inflation, expanding access to services that people need \u2014 health care being at the front of the line \u2014 and protecting reproductive rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris has already shown signs of this focus, saying in a campaign address on Monday that she believes \u201cin a future where no child has to grow up in poverty; where every person can buy a home, start a family, and build wealth; and where every person has access to paid family leave and affordable child care.\u201d All of these stances are essentially what Biden has pitched before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that Harris has shown she\u2019s not a hardened ideologue means that she can be swayed by political headwinds, giving social movements an opportunity to push various agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the country\u2019s most transformational legislation, for example, didn\u2019t come directly from presidents who were ideological hardliners, but rather from presidents who were willing to listen to social movements and public sentiment \u2014 as was the case during the Civil Rights Era.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n