With the election less than a week away, both presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, have geared up on the campaign trail nationwide, focusing specifically on swing states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. Topics such as reproductive healthcare, the economy and immigration weigh heavily on the ballot this year.
When President Biden stepped down as the Democratic nominee, Harris became the new Democratic option and the responsibilities that followed. To many Americans, this new candidate was a refreshing change to Biden’s current demeanor, whether completely planned or not. According to a survey by the Pew Research Institute in July, just 40% of Americans would have voted for Biden at that point.
The Democratic Party’s new candidate in July was a strong push against the rhetoric that Biden couldn’t serve. According to the Associated Press, Harris brought in $81 million just 24 hours after Biden’s withdrawal. Her support has been continuous, as her campaign ended August with $235.5 million in funds.
Harris has held strong footing that she is pro-choice regarding women’s reproductive rights. According to the Associated Press, if elected, she vows to reinstate the protections of Roe v. Wade, which prohibited states from making abortion illegal before 20 weeks, per fetal viability.
On Trump’s side, policy recommendations around abortion continue to be unclear – his official campaign website does not detail anything specific about women’s reproductive healthcare. However, voters can look at his track record during his previous presidency to understand Trump’s policies. According to a report by Planned Parenthood, in 2019, he announced a gag rule barring Planned Parenthood grantees such as political organizations and state governments out of Title X, a program that assists with women’s reproductive healthcare, such as cancer screenings, birth control and STD testing. Additionally, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which protected the constitutional right to an abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy, was overturned in the Supreme Court in 2022, and three of the judges who supported the overturning were appointed by Trump.
While his track record on abortion has made him arguably the most pro-life president, he has said that abortion, as it was decided in 2022, should be left up to the states. Therefore, he would veto a national abortion ban if it were to be proposed, according to Politico.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Harris has publicly spoken about her vision for the country economically. During the Biden administration, inflation rates reached 5.2%, according to Investopedia. Much of this was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s supply-and-demand and supply-chain disruptions, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To curb the negative effects of inflation which have resulted in high prices for many Americans, Harris has proposed to bolster the middle class by vowing $100 million in tax credits to boost US manufacturing, per the Wall Street Journal. She noted at a rally in Pittsburgh on September 23 that this would be paid for by raising taxes on US companies’ foreign earnings if the global corporate minimum tax agreement is reached via Congress.
Trump has staunchly promoted his platform on the economy through a few ways. His tariffs proposal would put a high tax on imported goods in an effort to increase U.S. manufacturing, resulting in raised revenue for the government, according to PBS. Additionally, Trump has made tax cuts a major element of his campaign, a policy which he enacted during his previous presidency in 2017. Under this proposal, he vows to extend tax cuts reducing taxes for most Americans. However, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, the lowest earners making under $19,600 would only see a $320 difference, favoring the top earners.
According to the Associated Press, on immigration, Harris vows both stricter asylum restrictions and a tougher stance on illegal migration. In Arizona, a swing state this election, border policies weigh heavily on the ballot, where they received a record influx of asylum seekers last year.
Immigration control has been a large vulnerability for the Democratic Party, and Trump has used their varying stances to his advantage in making a claim for his own platform. According to Politico, he has also vowed to crack down on border control, specifically deportations of undocumented migrants and removing Temporary Protected Status.
The election will ultimately come down to the swing states as the economy, immigration, and reproductive rights weigh heavily on the ballot. From now until election day, the two candidates are hitting the campaign trail in these states to rally up voters and gain support for their platforms.
Sources:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/01/trump-abortion-veto-national-ban-00182091
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/10/economy/economy-plans-trump-harris/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/donald-trump-platform-policy-positions-2024
https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2024/8/26/trump-campaign-policy-proposals-2024