Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris are cheering her campaign, even as they acknowledge it's unclear where she stands on most key issues as the Democratic candidate continues to shift on key policies.
Since taking over from President Biden as the Democratic nominee, the 59-year-old Harris has reversed her positions on energy, health care and illegal immigration in an effort to better appeal to moderates in key battleground states.
Among the policy positions Harris has abandoned are: Abolish private health insurance, Decriminalize illegal border crossingsIn 2019, when he was a senator from California and seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, he introduced bills that included banning hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas, and banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.
In recent weeks, The Washington Post spoke to several swing-state voters who plan to cast their ballots for Harris, most of whom gave a vague picture of her ideals: pro-life and pro-environment.
But the main reason they support Harris is because she's not former President Donald Trump.
Immigration
“I would say she's more of a moderate on immigration, in the sense that she's not into letting just anyone in,” Aaliyah Dittman, a 20-year-old college student from Clarion County, Pennsylvania, told The Washington Post when asked about Harris' positions on the border and immigration.
“But I feel like she's a bit like Biden,” added Dittman, a first-time voter who is looking to Harris, “and that's the tricky part. She's still the vice president, so she has to step away from the administration and say this is what I believe, but maybe she's not doing a good job of it.”
(Harris previously supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings, opposed Trump's wall, and oversaw the Biden-Harris administration's policies that have allowed more than 8 million migrants into the country. Now she supports the wall and says she wants to hire more Border Patrol agents.)
Dittman also recalled that at the Democratic National Convention, Harris “spoke about the border deal that Trump told Republicans to kill and said she was going to revive it.”
A 28-year-old George Mason University librarian, who did not want to give her name, similarly said she could not clearly define Harris' position on immigration and was not shy about saying the vice president had backtracked on the issue.
“I think she's staying true to herself. To be honest, I've never seen her change her attitude so I can't give you a comprehensive answer,” said a Fairfax, Virginia, school official.
“I don't pay that much attention to the news, but from what I've seen, from attorney general of California to vice president to presidential candidate, it seems like she's always stayed true to her views, and even when her views change, she stays true to her views,” she added. “She's really [illegal immigration] Instead, it should be seen as an opportunity for growth and development, rather than in keeping with what the majority of Americans want.”
Energy and Environment
Harris supporters who spoke to The Washington Post were skeptical that the vice president would be proactive on environmental issues, and acknowledged it was unclear where she stood on the issue.
“I don't know. The environment isn't something I'm particularly interested in,” McKenna Anderson, a junior at the University of Michigan, told The Washington Post.
“My major is gender, so I'm not that familiar with environmental issues in general,” Anderson said. “I know that she and Biden built the Alaskan oil pipeline, but I don't think that's particularly environmentally friendly, so I don't know exactly where she stands, but from what I know, she doesn't seem to be very active on environmental issues.”
(Harris previously supported a ban on fracking and was an early advocate of the $2 trillion Green New Deal. She has since reversed course on the fracking ban and avoided commenting on the proposed climate change bill.)
Anna Klein, a freshman from Flat Rock, Michigan, majoring in statistics at the University of Michigan, said Democrats often pander to voters when talking about the environment, but that wouldn't deter her from voting for Harris.
“To be honest with you, I'm not sure she's going to do anything about it,” Klein said. “She might talk about it, she might act like she's going to do something, but even Biden said he would do a lot of things, and he certainly had policies that would help, but they always talk about it to get people on their side and then they don't actually do anything.”
“I think the biggest question right now is whether we want people with any kind of moral values in office,” she argued. “I'm not really worried about any particular issue.”
abortion
Abortion policy was a top priority for several battleground state lawmakers who spoke to The Washington Post, but few could articulate what Harris would actually do to expand reproductive rights as president.
Anderson, a gender studies major from Michigan, said of Harris, “I definitely want to do more, including on women's health.”
“I think she's pro-abortion,” she added. “I need to learn more.” [about Harris’ policies].”
Klein, a statistics major from Michigan, gave a similar response when asked what Harris' policies stood out to her.
“I'm very supportive of her pro-abortion policies,” she said, “but I can't name any names right now.”
“In her speech, Kamala said she was going to reinstate Roe,” recalled Dittman, the Pennsylvania college student, referring to the overturned court decision that legalized abortion across the United States.
The Keystone State native said reproductive rights is one of her two “core values,” the other being “gun safety.”
Does policy really matter?
Dittman told The Washington Post that while there wasn't much policy talk at the DNC, he was pleased with the “message” and hoped Harris would be more specific when she debates Trump on September 10.
“She needs to start sending that message now,” Dittman said, noting that she likes following the “fun” and “relatable” Kamala HQ X account, but said “maybe it would be a good idea to expand the policy.”
“I really hope that she makes a strong case for policy at the debate because I think Trump is just going to ramble on and on about whatever he says. At least my hope is that Kamala has answers and policies ready,” she added.
Brandyn Fragosa, a 20-year-old communications major from Stafford, Virginia, at George Mason University, indicated she plans to vote for Harris in November regardless of where the vice president stands on policy issues.
“I will be voting for Kamala Harris because I feel her beliefs align with my beliefs,” he said.
Fragosa said none of Harris' policy positions stood out to him, but that he would “look into it further” even if they wouldn't change his vote.
“At this point, I feel like, I know what Trump believes and I know that it doesn't align with my beliefs,” he said. “I know she worked as vice president under Biden and I know that a lot of what they follow and believe is the same as my beliefs.”
Like Fragosa, Kyle Woody, an 18-year-old psychology major from Ashburn, Virginia, at George Mason University, said he “doesn't know much about” Harris' policies but that it wouldn't have much of an impact on his vote.
“I don't think Trump is a good person,” Woody said.
And experienced voters also told The Post during this election cycle that policy doesn't play a big role in their decisions at the ballot box.
In Las Vegas, Nevada, Craig West, a former Department of Defense expert on nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, said he believes Trump is “the greatest threat to democracy that I've seen in my career.”
For West, that was what motivated him to vote, more than Harris' policies.
Tanesha Jordan Roberts, pastor of Greater Grace Global Church in Las Vegas, said she is a registered Republican but had not voted for the “front-runner” in several elections until she voted for Biden in 2020.
“I think politics needs to get back to being boring,” Roberts told the Post. “I probably won't agree with 90 percent of what she's proposing. But this isn't a policy decision. This is about our democracy. This is about the rule of law. This is about how to get out of the madness we've gotten ourselves into.”
—Additional reporting by Ethan Dodd and Mark A. Kellner
