Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention was the closest look at her policy goals to date. She attacked Donald Trump for his lawsuits, complicity in the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack, and his role in appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
However, Harris went beyond these Democratic talking points. She hit notes designed to appeal to centrist voters and conservative Independents. Her acceptance speech established populist credentials from prosecuting “big banks” and articulating tough stances on border security and confronting hostile foreign powers.
Harris’ speech was designed to not only unite Democrats but also break ground on the swing voters who will decide the election.
Populist Appeals and Centrism on Immigration
Populism – appeals against corrupt elites – grew out of the Great Recession’s devastation. It was represented by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party. Donald Trump and Steve Bannon were the populist standard-bearers who took over the Republican Party. Trump’s appeal to anti-elite sentiment got him elected in 2016. President Biden re-embraced unions in 2020 and took early steps to refocus the Democratic Party on working-class people.
Harris signaled that she would continue the Democrats’ move away from Wall Street and closer to the working class. Early in her acceptance speech, she remarked:
“As attorney general of California, I took on the big banks, delivered $20 billion for middle-class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner bill of rights, one of the first of its kind in the nation.”
She emphasized her policy ideas for the middle class throughout her speech. Harris invoked her childhood as part of a middle-class family and criticized Trump for tax policies that benefited high-earners more than middle-class Americans.
She also moved to the center on the border. Immigration is among the most important issues to Republicans. Harris tacked right to address this concern for Republicans put off by Trump. She said:
“As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he [Trump] killed, and I will sign it into law. I know…we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.”
The bipartisan border bill was a bipartisan attempt to increase border security. It would also give the President the authority to shut the Southern border down once crossings pass certain thresholds. Under the bill, the President could’ve shut the border down if average daily crossings passed 4,000. In July 2024, the Border Patrol recorded 56,408 encounters at the southern border, a daily average of 1,819 crossings.
