RALEIGH, N.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris is in Raleigh, North Carolina for a campaign visit today.
She is promoting a broad set of economic proposals that would offer new tax breaks and lower the cost of living for Americans, aiming to address the financial concerns that are at the top of the mind for voters and that Republican Donald Trump is trying to lay at her doorstep.
Harris’ plans include a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries, as well as $25,000 in down payment help for certain first-time homebuyers and tax incentives for builders of starter homes.
Harris is calling for tax breaks aimed at families, as well as middle- and lower-income people. She would expand the child tax credit to up to $3,600 – and $6,000 for children in their first year of life. Harris would expand the earned income tax credit to cover people in lower-income jobs without children, which the campaign estimates would cut their effective tax rate by $1,500.
Harris also wants to lower health insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act.
Many of the changes would require congressional approval, far from a given in the current political environment.
Harris is trying to blunt Trump’s attacks on her as “a radical California liberal who broke the economy,” as he put in during a speech Thursday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he displayed popular grocery store items meant to represent the high cost of food.
Year-over-year inflation has reached its lowest level in more than three years, but food prices are still 21% above where they were three years ago. A Labor Department report this week showed that nearly all of July’s inflation reflected higher rental prices and other housing costs, a trend that, according to real-time data, is easing. As a result, housing costs should rise more slowly in the coming months, contributing to lower inflation.
She is expected to introduce new plans to help homeowners.
Harris’ grocery pricing proposal would instruct the Federal Trade Commission to penalize “big corporations” that engage in price spikes and singles out a lack of competition in the meat-packing industry for driving up meat prices.
Polls show that Americans are more likely to trust Trump over Harris when it comes to handling the economy: Some 45% say Trump is better positioned to handle the economy, while 38% say that about Harris. About 1 in 10 trust neither Harris nor Trump to better handle the economy, according to the latest Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
Harris canceled a trip to North Carolina last week due to Tropical Storm Debby, but it’s clear that the state remains a top priority for her campaign.
North Carolina has been a hot spot for visits from Biden and Harris this year. After Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump in June, Raleigh was the first city where he held a rally in an attempt to reenergize Democratic voters. Harris also made two North Carolina stops – in Greensboro and Fayetteville – in the weeks leading up to Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.
“When it comes to North Carolina, we went from a situation where Joe Biden was almost surely going down in defeat here, whereas Kamala Harris has a very real chance of winning,” North Carolina State University political science professor Steven Greene said.
Dan Kanninen, battleground states director for the Harris campaign, said North Carolina “is as likely as any of those states to be the tipping point state, so we’ve invested in it heavily since the beginning.”
Harris’ newly announced running mate Tim Walz will not be joining Harris in Raleigh this trip.
Donald Trump also made a stop in North Carolina on Wednesday in Asheville.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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