Harris is trying to cut into Trump's edge on the economy. It could decide the election.
Kamala Harris is looking to neutralize a glaring vulnerability that has jeopardized her prospects since she replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee: voter frustration with high prices.
WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris is looking to neutralize a glaring vulnerability that has jeopardized her prospects since she replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee: voter frustration with high prices.
Harris is talking about the economy in hope of winning over voters who continue to feel nagging economic pain. It may be the most deliberate and clear break she has had with Biden since she took over the ticket.
Biden spent the past year touting "Bidenomics" and insisting that voters would come around and give him credit for a slew of legislative victories, without ultimately blaming him for the high cost of groceries and other necessities.
But Harris is more willing to lean into voter anxiety over the cost of living and pitch herself as the best candidate to mitigate pocketbook pressures. She isn't criticizing Biden. But her tone and message suggest she doesn't want to be cast simply as his protégée.
“We’ve lived through a historic inflation shock,” said a Harris campaign adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That has affected every American economically in different ways, and it takes time for that to work through peoples’ lives.”
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