Voters want more from Kamala Harris.
But while the Democratic nominee has been clear about what she is not — Donald Trump — she is either unwilling or unable to spell out a comprehensive blueprint for exactly what she would do as the 47th president.
In an interview on Tuesday, the vice president mostly stuck to broad themes and headlines about her economic plan that were largely familiar from a previous big-picture policy speech and her convention address.
But a candidate who has been criticized by opponents for running on “vibes” and surfing a wave of joy refused to be pinned down on specifics and details, instead citing her values and background to attest to her sincerity.
For instance, when asked at Tuesday’s National Association of Black Journalists event how she’d alleviate the “squeeze” many Americans feel over child and elder care, she said her plan was for no family to pay more than 7% of their income on such costs. But she offered no roadmap for how she’d drive major social policy reform through what is likely to be a polarized Congress next year and didn’t say how she’d pay for it.
On another intractable issue, the Israel-Hamas war, Harris was strong on aspiration, vague on specifics and seemed to fall on both sides of the issue. “I absolutely believe that this war has to end. And it has to end as soon as possible,” she said. “And the way that will be achieved is by getting a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done. And we are working around the clock to achieve that end.” She added: “Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
Few would quarrel with her diagnosis of the situation, but the US has been pursuing the mirage of a deal for months. There’s no sign Israel and Hamas want an agreement. And after months of failed diplomacy, the White House seems to be taking a breather.
It may be unrealistic to expect Harris, a member of an incumbent administration, to break with Biden over the war. And she’s got no power to stop it herself. But her hedging and repetitive soundbites in recent weeks show little evidence of new ideas.
While her debate performance last week projected strength, Harris is not usually a gifted political athlete in spontaneous, high-pressure media sitdowns like ex-President Bill Clinton, for instance. And it doesn’t come naturally to her to drill down deep into policy questions like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. This makes her vulnerable to attacks by the Trump campaign and conservative media that her “word salads” mean she’s not up to being president – even if Trump often communicates in a scattershot stream of consciousness and is spreading dangerous falsehoods.
The question that could define the election
This all raises two key questions. Does it matter that Harris is hardly a policy wonk? And is it really likely that this most unusual of elections will turn on something as conventional as a policy platform?
Harris is, after all, offering herself as a fleeting chance for Americans to escape the bitterness and division of the Trump years. Her success in triggering the former president in their debate was in service of her primary goal – exposing his wild behavior and showing that he’s unfit for the Oval Office.
The days when presidential elections were decided by chunky policy speeches – if they ever existed – have been swept away in the social media era and by the sound and fury epitomized by the Republican nominee. And since Harris is a last-minute replacement for President Joe Biden, it’s not surprising she lacks a long-established policy shop pumping out programs.
Issues matter, but elections also involve less defined, more emotive choices. While Trump’s voters might buy into his hardline rhetoric on immigration, their bond with their candidate is often anchored in an instinctive sense that he understands them and will protect them. The vice president’s success may not be confined to her policy stances on issues like abortion – though these are critical – but a sense that a different, more optimistic future is within reach with her at the top of the Democratic ticket.
And the presidency, more than any other high office, tests temperament as much as policy gravitas.
Even so, voters looking for a more granular approach may be disappointed with the Democratic nominee. The list of policies recently added to the Harris campaign website is rudimentary. And good luck working out whether she’d break with Biden in handling the world’s most pressing crises — from the war in Ukraine, to China’s superpower challenge and Iran’s nuclear program. The vice president is yet to give a major foreign policy address since becoming the Democratic nominee — a concern for voters who wonder how she’d lead the free world.
Harris’ reluctance to plunge into a round of major media interviews or town hall events – and her preference for friendly social media influencers and local media – is only adding to the opacity about her views.
But she’s not running in a vacuum – her undisciplined opponent is hardly a policy wonk. Trump would often switch his administration’s priorities on the fly and often seems to care more about himself than ideology.
And Harris might be smart to avoid taking positions that could scare off disaffected Republicans and moderate suburban voters she’s seeking to win over. Already, arch conservatives like former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who see Trump as an existential threat to the republic, have found a way to endorse the Democratic nominee.
Voters want to know more about Harris
Still, recent polls show that the vice president has a window of opportunity to court voters who want to learn more about her. And many want details about how she’d ease their economic worries, including from high prices.
A New York Times/Siena College poll before last week’s presidential debate showed that 28% of likely voters wanted to know more about Harris and just 9% said the same about the ex-president.
And voters in the handful of swing states that will decide the election are also telling CNN that while they were impressed with her debate performance, they still need more specifics. “Kamala Harris says she wants to lift up the middle class, but how?” Linda Rooney, who voted for ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the GOP primary, told CNN’s John King last week. Rooney, from the Philadelphia suburbs, doesn’t want to vote for Trump but voiced concern over the Democratic nominee’s positions on fracking and other issues.
Antonio Munoz, a veteran and retired police officer who owns a taco bar in Nevada, is leaning toward Harris but is frustrated that she’s not done more to detail her vows to help small businesses. “I’ve been checking her website and you read it, but it’s not specific,” Munoz told King. “We need a different plan to get over the hump with this inflation that has caused severe damage to a lot of businesses. … She needs to be more direct.”
A lack of specifics may give Trump less to attack. But the risk is that leaves Harris without a strong defense. She’s getting criticized every day by negative ads in battleground states mocking her as an architect of unpopular “Bidenomics.” She might be promising to crack down on supposed price gouging by supermarkets, but she skipped over the issue preoccupying millions of Americans in her Tuesday interview in Philadelphia and pivoted to another message.
“Is the price of groceries still too high? Yes. Do we have more work to do? Yes. And I will tell you, I do believe that I offer a new generation of leadership for our country that is about, in particular, turning the page on an era that, sadly, has shown us attempts by some to incite fear, to create division in our country,” Harris said.
The vice president did tout her plan to offer a $50,000 tax deduction to spur small business start-ups, her proposal to increase the child tax credit to $6,000 and a push to increasing housing stock and provide assistance to first-time homebuyers. Yet as she often does, she spoke in generalities rather than offering step-by-step plans.
And that’s exactly how it should be, according to the only other female presidential nominee of a major party. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton scoffed at demands for endless policy plans from Harris.
“She does not have to do it. I am going to just cut to the chase,” Clinton told the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast, released on Monday.
“Policy details are not going to do it,” Clinton said. “I put out more policies than I think anybody ever has … and I talked about the economy every day, but literally after the election, I was told that I never talked about the economy. Campaign policy is really about showing you can govern with your values in a way that can improve people’s lives.”
Clinton said Harris’ principal message was the right one, namely that “I am going to help you, I am going to protect you, I am going to try to provide opportunities for you.”