Kamala Harris is taking a page out of Bill Clinton’s playbook, giving Donald Trump a run for his money on an issue dear to voters’ hearts (and wallets): the economy.
The Democratic presidential nominee is set to announce Wednesday that if elected president, she’ll give massive tax breaks to new small business owners. Her plan would allow new companies to deduct up to $50,000 in start-up expenses, a tenfold increase over the current $5,000 deduction, according to a campaign official.
Following a flurry of ads portraying herself as a middle class ally who will lower grocery and housing costs, Harris is making a big play for small business owners. Her new proposal, which she’s expected to unveil during a campaign event at a family-owned brewery in New Hampshire, seeks to field 25 million new small business applications.
Harris is turning to history to find a way to defeat Trump as polls show the two candidates tied in a statistical dead heat just two months out from Election Day, even as the unexpected Democratic nominee makes inroads with key voting blocs. She’s looking as far back as 1992, when Clinton campaign strategist James Carville coined the Arkansas governor’s winning message to voters: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
In a guest essay published in The New York Times late Tuesday, Carville said nothing of the economy. Instead, he argued, Harris can use Trump’s greatest strength—he “remains the singular most recognized name in the United States”—to her own advantage.
The Democratic messaging guru said that just as Biden won on change in 1992, Barack Obama on hope in 2008 and Trump on reviving America in 2016, that “2024 will be won by who is fresh and who is rotten. It’s quite simple: The shepherd of tomorrow wins the sheep.”
Harris is the “only one candidate in this race consistently talking about how, as president, she would take actions to lower prices for people, expand small businesses” and address housing costs, among other middle-class initiatives, the Harris campaign official, who asked for anonymity in order to speak freely about a yet-unveiled campaign proposal, said.
Trump, the campaign official noted, has instead boasted about giving billionaires and big corporations tax cuts.
Trump will lay out his own economic agenda during a luncheon at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, Fox News’ Larry Kudlow reported Tuesday night. On Friday, the GOP presidential nominee is scheduled to speak to the Fraternal Order of Police Conference in North Carolina.
Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to depart at Pittsburgh International Airport after a Labor Day campaign event in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Quinn Glabicki/Reuters
But first, the former and potentially future president will have a chance to rile up his base Wednesday evening at a town hall style event with his friend and Fox News host Sean Hannity in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state where voters will help determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
During a visit last month to the Tar Heel state—fickle battleground territory the Trump campaign is seeking to keep red—Trump hinted that the economy as a campaign policy issue was beginning to bore him.
“They wanted to do a speech on the economy,” seemingly referring to his staff. “They say it’s the most important subject. I’m not sure it is.”
More recently, however, as recent polls suggest voters trust Trump over Harris when it comes to the economy, the politically unorthodox former president has taken a more traditional GOP stance. On Truth Social Tuesday, for instance, he blamed Harris’ planned visit to New Hampshire on rising costs in the state.
