Since announcing her historic run for president in July, Vice President Kamala Harris’s favorability percentage has skyrocketed on the analysis website 538, her Instagram account has gained more than 2.5 million followers, and her presence on TikTok would make any influencer envious. And with the Democratic National Convention well underway—which, it should be noted, included a cameo from Lil’ John—Harris’s popularity is only expected to swell in the coming days.
It’s safe to say she’s passed the presidential vibe check. However, one question remains top-of-mind for voters across America: What does Harris stand for as a politician?
To help you stay informed, we’ve gathered several of her key policy positions so you can get to know Harris’s agenda if she’s voted into the Oval Office in November.
Harris’s Position on Paid Parental Leave
Last Friday, Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, released their economic platform, which shows that they are hoping to restore the expanded federal child-tax credits to help parents afford everyday necessities. As Harris’s campaign team shared with CNBC, this is a “year when many family’s expenses are highest—with cribs, diapers, car seats and more,” which is why she wants to provide a tax credit of up to $6,000 for families with newborns in their first year of life.
In previous statements, Harris has also said, “Let us be clear. In America, in the 21st century, every worker should be able to take time off to care for themselves or for the people they love,” adding in the caption of her Facebook video, “we must ensure paid family and medical leave for every worker.”
And on Tuesday, she reiterated those comments at a campaign event, stating, “We believe in the future—a future with affordable health care, a future with affordable child care, a future with affordable housing and paid leave,” adding, “that’s the future we believe in.” (Learn more about paid leave and why it’s vital for the economy here.)
Harris’s Position on LGBTQ+ Rights
Kamala Harris has been a long-standing advocate for gay marriage, consistently supporting LGBTQ+ rights throughout her career, including during her time as vice president.
“For the past four years, the Biden-Harris administration has made LGBTQ rights a cornerstone of its policy agenda,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote about the duo. “Among other efforts, the Biden-Harris administration has consistently sued states to block anti-trans laws and policies, including asking the Supreme Court to lift bans on medically necessary health care for trans adolescents.”
Harris’s advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community dates back to 2004, when, as the district attorney of San Francisco, she performed some of the first same-sex marriages in the United States, which at the time was still technically defying California state law. Harris recently reunited with Bradley Witherspoon and Raymond Cabone, one couple she wed during that period, over a brief call, during which Witherspoon said, “I never thought about getting married and what that would mean, but once we got the opportunity to do so, it meant a lot to me.… I think that was part of the emotion as well; being denied something for so long, thinking that it would not happen in my lifetime, and to see it happen.” (See more about Harris’s record on LGBTQ+ rights on GLAAD’s tracker here.)
Harris’s Position on Abortion Access
Harris has been a vocal supporter of abortion access and reproductive rights for some time—far more actively than President Biden. During her tenure as the California attorney general, Harris defended the state’s abortion laws and took legal action against deceptive practices by crisis pregnancy centers.
In 2017, as a senator, Kamala Harris cosponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act, which aimed at banning states from imposing restrictive access to abortions, including preventing patients from making “medically unnecessary in-person visits to any individual or entity” before obtaining an abortion. As vice president, Harris categorically condemned the 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Our administration has taken action to protect access to emergency medical care, to support women forced to travel out of state for care, and to protect women’s privacy,” Harris stated at an event in 2023. “But we know this fight will not truly be won until we secure this right for every American—which means, ultimately, the United States Congress must put back in place what the Supreme Court took away and have the courage to stand for freedom in every way.”
Harris’s Position on Immigration
Immigration may be one of Harris’s weak points as a presidential candidate due to the controversial decision of President Biden to appoint her to lead the administration’s response to the border crisis weeks into his presidency—leading Republicans to nickname her the Border Czar. This led to confusion over what Harris’s job actually entailed and how she engaged with the border. However, as the Washington Post noted, “Harris, in fact, has never been in charge of the border. The Department of Homeland Security manages migration.”
Instead, her role has focused on providing private financial aid to three Central American nations—El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—to discourage migrants from wanting to leave in the first place. The White House says her efforts have raised more than $5.2 billion in investments for the three countries to date.
“She felt—and I think she was right—that what she could do the most was help basically lead the effort to draw in investment, using the confidence that a relationship with the White House would give to investors,” Ricardo Zúniga, a former State Department official who specialized in the area (known as the Northern Triangle) and traveled with Harris, shared with the Associated Press. Harris even began running ads in August stating she plans to be tough on the border if she wins the election. “As vice president, she backed the toughest border-control bill in decades,” the ad’s narrator reads. “And as president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking. Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris.”
Harris has also voiced her support for the Dreamers under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, stating in June, “As the Attorney General of California and as a United States Senator, I fought to defend and protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). And as Vice President, I have worked alongside President Biden to preserve and fortify DACA, including by ensuring Dreamers have access to affordable health care, which will improve the health of all communities.” However, she added, “While President Biden and I will continue fighting to protect Dreamers, only the United States Congress can ensure permanent protections for these young people and their families. Lawmakers must pass legislation that creates a path to citizenship. The time for a lasting solution is long overdue.”
Harris’s Position on AI
As vice president, Harris supported the establishment of guidelines and standards for AI development to ensure it is used both responsibly and transparently.
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“When it comes to AI, America is a global leader. It is American companies that lead the world in AI innovation,” Harris said at the AI Safety Summit in the United Kingdom. “It is America that can catalyze global action and build global consensus in a way that no other country can. And under President Joe Biden, it is America that will continue to lead on AI.”
In the same statement, Harris also noted AI’s potential in health care, education, and the economy, including “to develop powerful new medicines to treat and even cure the diseases that have for generations plagued humanity, to dramatically improve agricultural production to help address global food insecurity and to save countless lives in the fight against the climate crisis.”
However, she stressed its downsides, including the potential for AI-enabled cyberattacks, AI-formulated bioweapons, and biased coding. But, as Harris added, the future she’s building is one where “AI is used to advance human rights and human dignity, where privacy is protected, and people have equal access to opportunity, where we make our democracies stronger and our world safer.”
Harris’s Position on Health Care
Harris’s health-care positions as a would-be president are murky at best at this point. During her previous run for office, Harris supported Medicare for All, which would provide all Americans access to health care under a single-payer system. However, her campaign team told the BBC in August that she will no longer push for single payer, so we’ll just have to wait and see what she announces as her new policy position.
However, a campaign officer shared this tidbit with CBS: Harris plans to continue working on bringing down health-care prices, including the cost of certain drugs. Just last week Biden and Harris announced together that they reached agreements with drug manufacturers to lower prices on select drugs used to treat conditions like heart failure and Crohn’s disease.
Harris’s Position on the Middle East
Harris’s stance on the Israeli/Gaza conflict also remains complex.
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In July, Harris stated she has an “unwavering commitment to the existence of the state of Israel, to its security, and to the people of Israel.” However, she added, “I also expressed to [Prime Minister Netanyahu] my serious concern about the scale of human suffering in Gaza, including the death of far too many innocent civilians. And I made clear my serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation there, with over two million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.”
She also reiterated her support for a two-state solution: “I remain committed to a path forward that can lead to a two-state solution. And I know right now it is hard to conceive of that prospect, but a two-state solution is the only path that ensures Israel remains a secure, Jewish, and democratic state and one that ensures Palestinians can finally realize the freedom, security, and prosperity that they rightly deserve.”
Harris’s Position on Cannabis Legalization
Harris’s history with cannabis is perhaps one of the biggest PR battles she will have to overcome, as her new position can either be seen as flip-flopping or as an evolution of thought, depending on whom you ask and how you choose to look at it.
As the AP reported, in 2010, while running for attorney general of California, Harris stated she opposed the sale of recreational marijuana in the state. And, as the AP noted, previously, as district attorney of the state, the prosecutors under Harris convicted more than 1,900 people for cannabis-related offenses.
However, it appears Harris has pulled a 180 with her thoughts on cannabis.
In early 2024, Harris called the federal classification of cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance “patently unfair.”
“I cannot emphasize enough that they need to get to it as quickly as possible, and we need to have a resolution based on their findings and their assessment,” Harris said of the need to reclassify the drug. “But this issue is stark when one considers the fact that on the schedule currently, marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin.… Marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin and more dangerous than fentanyl, which is absurd. Not to mention patently unfair.”
Harris’s Position on Home Affordability
One more important policy stance you need to know about is Harris’s plan to make homeownership a reality again for Americans—especially young people.
In August, Harris announced that within her first 100 days in office, she would call upon Congress to pass the “Stop Predatory Investing Act,” introduced by Ohio senator Sherrod Brown in 2023. The act, Quartz reported, removes tax benefits for investors and firms that purchase large numbers of single-family homes, pricing many others out of the market in the process.
“Some corporate landlords buy dozens, if not hundreds of houses and apartments, then they turn around and rent them out at extremely high prices,” Harris stated at a campaign rally. “And it can make it impossible then for regular people to be able to buy or even rent a home.”
How big of a buying spree are investors really on? Quartz pointed to MetLife Investment Management data that shows if the trend continues in the same way, investors could control 40% of US single-family rental homes within the next six years. NBC reported that Harris additionally aims to call on Congress to pass the “Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act,” proposed by senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Peter Welch of Vermont, which would prevent corporate landlords from being able to use price-setting tools to dramatically raise rent prices.
Now, all that’s left to do is watch the remainder of the Democratic National Convention and watch the presidential debate on September 10—that is, if Trump actually shows up.
