Vice President Kamala Harris inherited the Biden-Harris campaign after President Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the 2024 race Sunday afternoon.
Harris hasn’t been declared the Democratic presidential nominee yet, but she has growing support among congressional Democrats, governors, donors and party leaders. Notably, former President Barack Obama has so far withheld his endorsement.
Before picking his running mate in 2020, Biden said he would pick a woman, and faced “increasing pressure to pick a Black woman,” said LaFleur Stephens-Dougan, a political science professor, according to the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Harris brought “relative youth, political experience, and a law enforcement background” to the ticket, according to Stephens-Dougan.
Now that Biden is out, will Harris’ stance on issues remain aligned with Biden’s, or will she move away from her predecessor? Here is where Harris stands on six issues.
Where does Kamala Harris stand on abortion?
Harris and Biden denounced the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Harris then became the face of the Biden administration’s position on abortion, which is that women should have a right to choose to have an abortion. As NPR noted, she became the first vice president to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic and toured the country while championing abortion rights.
In 2019, when Harris, a California senator, was running for president, she said in a town hall that Roe v. Wade was under attack, and if elected, she would “require that states that have a history of passing legislation that is designed to prevent or limit a woman’s access to reproductive health care, that those laws have to come before my Department of Justice for a review and approval and until we determine that they are constitutional, they will not take effect.”
Biden, prior to dropping out of the race, had said he would “restore Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land,” if reelected.
Where does Kamala Harris stand on Israel and Gaza?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was en route to Washington, D.C., on Monday, arriving ahead of time for his address to the U.S. Congress Wednesday.
According to Axios reporter Juliegrace Brufke, a senior source involved in planning for his visit said Harris declined to attend.
Biden and Harris have been supportive of Israel after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7. The Biden administration sent Israel monetary and military aid. But, as The Washington Post reported, Harris has been more critical of Israel.
“We have also been clear that far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, that Israel must do better to protect innocent civilians,” she said in February at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Biden’s calls for deescalation and a cease-fire came a few months later.
Where does Kamala Harris stand on the economy and inflation?
Not only has Harris backed the Biden White House’s economic proposals, like the Infrastructure Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act, but she also embarked on a nationwide “Economic Opportunity Tour” to tout these accomplishments.
“One of the compelling reasons for me to start this tour now is to ask all the leaders here for help in getting the word out about what’s available to entrepreneurs and small businesses,” said Harris. “Because we are in the process of putting a lot of money in the streets of America for this growth. And we want to make sure everyone has access to the opportunity to take advantage of the contracts and the work that has been generated by this policy push.”
As a senator, Harris introduced the LIFT the Middle Class Act. This bill proposed refundable tax credits of $3,000 per person for middle- and working-class Americans. She also called for closing the gender pay gap and proposed a $100 billion plan to close the racial wealth gap by assisting Americans living in red-lined districts.
In 2019, Harris made waves when she became the first major Democratic presidential hopeful to team up with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on a “Medicare for All” plan. As CNBC reported at the time, this positioned Harris on the left of Biden on health care.
During her time as vice president, she championed forgiving student debt and cast a tie-breaking vote in 2021 to raise the minimum wage to $15 for federal contractors.
Where does Kamala Harris stand on the southern border and immigration?
In March 2021, Biden announced he would assign Harris on a task he, too received while he was vice president.
“I’ve asked her, the VP, today — because she’s the most qualified person to do it — to lead our efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle and the countries that help — are going to need help in stemming the movement of so many folks, stemming the migration to our southern border,” Biden said at the time.
In her June 2021, remarks from Guatemala City alongside the country’s president, Alejandro Giammattei, Harris said, “I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border.”
While Biden asked Harris to find the “root causes” of migration to the U.S., illegal migration across the southern border reached record highs under the Biden-Harris administration.
It’s unclear whether her efforts accomplished any change, but she continues to focus on the issue. Earlier this year, she announced more than $1 billion in funding to create economic opportunities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, in the hopes of shrinking migrant crossings into the U.S.
Where does Kamala Harris stand on crime?
During her time as district attorney in California, Harris had the reputation of being tough on crime with more than 1,900 marijuana offense convictions under her belt.
She favored higher or no bail for gun-related crimes and boasted of her 67% high conviction rates. Harris also pursued an anti-truancy initiative and told parents of chronically absent students she would prosecute them. This proved to be controversial as it disproportionately affected people of color.
Later, she attempted to rebrand herself as a “progressive prosecutor,” which she didn’t view as contradictory, she told The New York Times.
“My entire career has been spent making needed reforms and fighting for those who too often are voiceless — from young people arrested for the first time and getting them jobs instead of jail, to grieving black mothers who wanted justice for their child’s murder as the system ignored their pain,” Harris said during her presidential campaign in 2019. “As president I’ll fix this broken system to make it fairer and more accountable for communities across the country.”
Biden, in the early days of his political career, also favored a more tough-on-crime approach, like the 1994 Crime Bill, which, authored by Biden, provided funding for more cops, prisons and prevention programs as well as aggressive policing. But, like Harris, Biden has shifted to favoring comprehensive reform.