Kamala Harris’ campaign does not fully show or evidence all of her policies.
After Joe Biden dropped out of the election and Kamala Harris was certified as the Democratic nominee on the final day of the Democratic National Convention, democrats began the search for her platform and policies. However, until just recently, her stance on different issues plaguing the country were noticeably absent from her official website. Instead, she voiced her platform during her campaign speeches. Still, despite stating her stance, she has not provided a clear plan for how she intends to enact her campaign policies.
A main talking point of hers since she launched her campaign in July has been reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade, which were overturned in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court case. While she voiced her clear support for reinstating abortion rights throughout the country, she has not made it clear how she would do so. During last week’s debate, even Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, pointed this out when he said that, to reinstate abortion, she would need both the House of Representatives and the Senate, both of which are full of races neither Harris nor the Democratic party have been drawing attention to even in their discussions of Project 2025. Although Trump is likely wrong in saying that Harris will only need the legislative branch to reinstate Roe v. Wade as there is a chance the Supreme Court will deem a nationwide congressional protection on abortion unconstitutional due to its perceived infringement upon states’ rights, he is correct in saying that Harris has no clear plan to protect abortion once elected into office. To ensure abortion is protected, she would either need a constitutional amendment, which requires a two-thirds supermajority in both the House and the Senate as well as ratification by three-fourths of the states’ legislatures. This is highly unlikely given the aforementioned lack of emphasis on congressional and state elections. The other option is to either pack the Supreme Court, which Biden discussed doing during the last presidential election but did not follow through on, or wait for the seats of two of the six conservative justices to become vacant and nominate left wing justices to the Supreme Court — another plan with no sure method of implementation.
Many of her other policies are similar. On her website, which contains her recently released plan, she vows to make communities safer from gun violence, yet does not list how she plans to do so. The website mentions that she did in her previous office as attorney general and that she “helped deliver” an investment of $15 billion to support local law enforcement across 1,000 cities as vice president. In other sections, she promises to build millions of new homes and to give a $25,000 down payment to first-time home buyers, which begs the question of the logistics of such promises, including where she intends to get the money for such expensive endeavors.
Another policy she has been stating she wishes to enact is a ceasefire deal. The question of a ceasefire in Gaza has been on many Americans’ minds for almost a year and has been a major topic since the rise of the uncommitted movement after the Democratic primary elections. Harris, much like Biden, has stated that there needs to be a ceasefire in Gaza with the return of Israelis taken on Oct. 7, 2023. However, she has not stated how she wishes to enact this, for instance by telling the United States ambassador to the United Nations to vote for or abstain from voting for the next Gaza ceasefire resolution that is brought to the floor of the UN and restricting sales to Israel if it does not comply. Instead, according to her national security advisor Phil Gordon, she has taken the position that she will not impose an arms embargo on Israel. Therefore, how she intends to enact this plan is unclear as well.
While Harris states she has plans she wishes to enact during her presidency, the details are not thoroughly explained and, as is evident in her website, much of her platform relies on the idea that if she does not win, Trump will.
