Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to lower costs for consumers by cracking down on high consumer prices and hidden fees, taking up the crusade against “junk fees” that has animated President Joe Biden’s economic platform in recent years.
“On day one I will take on price gouging and bring down costs,” Harris announced to a crowd of more than 10,000 supporters in Atlanta on Tuesday evening. “We will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.”
With just 98 days until the election, the Harris campaign is on a turbo charged timeline to develop its own policy proposals.
On Tuesday, Harris’ economic pitch echoed Biden’s, blaming big corporations for the stubbornly high cost of living that has plagued voters’ economic outlook for the entirety of the election cycle.
“We will take on corporate landlords and cap unfair rent increases,” Harris said to the roaring Atlanta crowd. “We will take on big pharma to cap prescription drug costs for all Americans.”
On a more granular level, it is still unclear what Harris’ economic policy agenda would look like if she won the presidency.
Some business leaders believe Harris would pursue a softer regulatory approach. Her rhetoric Tuesday evening did not hint in that direction, however.
Harris was introduced by the rapper Megan Thee Stallion. In a display of Harris’ bipartisan appeal, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, was in attendance.
Georgia Democratic lawmakers such as Williams and U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were also there, along with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
In the week since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race against former President Donald Trump, Harris has enjoyed a surge of grassroots momentum and high-dollar donations.
The wave of support potentially puts swing states such as Georgia back on the map for Democrats, after months of slipping support with Biden helming the ticket.
A new Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll of battleground states released Tuesday found a statistical dead-heat, with support for Harris at 48% and Trump 47%, in the seven swing states likely to determine who wins the Electoral College in November.
The poll found Harris leading Trump in four of the seven, though all but one state fell within the survey’s margin of error. In Michigan, the vice president was ahead of Trump by 11 points, a stunning turnaround for a state where support for Biden had been fraying.
In Georgia, Harris and Trump are tied, underscoring that even buoyed by a new groundswell of Democratic enthusiasm, Harris is just neck-and-neck with Trump. The poll surveyed 4,973 registered voters across the battlegrounds from July 24 to July 28.
“You’ve heard us talk about the need to have the infrastructure across all the battlegrounds to win close elections, but it’s clear the Vice President is energizing and mobilizing our base,” Harris campaign battleground director Dan Kanninen said Monday on a call with reporters.
Once a deep red stronghold, Georgia has been in play for Democrats over the past few election cycles due to growing populations of Black and Latino voters that make up a major part of the party’s base.
But polls showed Biden lagging with those same demographics this year, a trend that Harris’ campaign is hoping its new presidential candidate can help reverse.
Since Biden’s exit, Harris has raised more than $200 million, two-thirds of which came from new donors, according to the campaign. The campaign has also hugely boosted its volunteer force with 360,000 new volunteer sign-ups.
The Georgia event marked Harris’ second official rally of her 2024 presidential campaign, though surrogates, including VP hopefuls, have stumped for her in thousands of events including roughly 2,300 over the weekend.
Harris’ first rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, drew a crowd of more than 3,000 people, then the largest of any of the campaign’s events this election cycle.
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