在作为副总统支持乔·拜登总统的政策议程三年多之后，副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯必须阐明她自己的总统竞选议程——以及接下来的第一个任期。
自从拜登周日宣布他将退出2024年的比赛据美国广播公司新闻报道，哈里斯已经获得足够多代表的承诺，如果他们在投票时都兑现承诺，就可以成为推定的被提名人。
现在，哈里斯-在2020年不成功的总统初选中，她在拜登的左边跑得很好，但此后成为政府政策的忠实拥护者-正在接受挑战，在11月大选临近之际，在对选民最重要的关键问题上建立自己的前进道路和立场。
她的2020年政纲和她担任副总统期间的一些言论让人们看到了哈里斯总统在几个关键领域可能比拜登更具进步性。
以色列-加沙
以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡在国会联席会议上发表讲话周三，哈里斯——作为副总统，他通常主持这类会议——明显缺席。
虽然哈里斯的团队说她的缺席只是计划冲突的结果副总统将在本周晚些时候与内塔尼亚胡进行一对一的会谈，她在最近几个月已经暗示，她可能会对以色列采取更严厉的态度以色列与哈马斯在加沙的战争.
在10月7日哈马斯袭击以色列之后，哈里斯最初是以色列抵抗哈马斯的自卫权的坚定支持者——驳斥了拜登政府可能在11月对该国援助附加条件的建议，称“我们不会在我们给予以色列自卫的支持上创造任何条件。”
但到了12月，哈里斯在前往迪拜参加联合国气候会议期间开始深入中东外交，在那里她还会见了该地区的领导人。在访问期间，她对以色列采取了比当时许多其他政府高级官员更强硬的语气，宣称“太多无辜的巴勒斯坦人被杀害”，并表示政府认为“以色列必须采取更多措施保护无辜平民。”
哈里斯今年3月在阿拉巴马州塞尔玛发表讲话，纪念血腥星期日周年，他再次呼吁以色列政府“必须采取更多措施，大幅增加援助流量，没有借口”，并呼吁以色列开放边境口岸，确保人道主义工作者不会成为目标。
在本月早些时候发表的采访中在全国哈里斯说，抗议加沙战争的年轻美国人“展示了人类应有的情感”，尽管她“绝对拒绝”他们的一些言论，但她理解“这背后的情感”
她一直公开支持至少暂时停火，她在3月份塞尔玛的演讲中说，“鉴于加沙的巨大苦难，必须立即停火”至少六周。
哈里斯与内塔尼亚胡的关系不像拜登那样长久，但她在3月份在白宫会见了以色列的本尼·甘茨，当时他在以色列的战争内阁中任职。今年早些时候，她还在慕尼黑安全会议期间会见了以色列总统艾萨克·赫尔佐格。
流产
哈里斯已经是奥巴马政府在堕胎权这一核心竞选议题上的首席信使，在这个问题上，他一直比拜登更大胆直言。
在2020年竞选总统之前，她以加州司法部长的身份去了危机怀孕中心，并向当时的最高法院提名人布雷特·卡瓦诺(Brett Kavanaugh)提出了一系列问题，在那里，她敦促他指定一项法律来监管男性可以对自己的身体做什么。
她的2020年政纲包括一项通过生殖权利法案的提案，该法案将采取平权措施来执行罗诉韦德案最高法院后来在2022年驳回了这一判决.
自从最高法院影响Roe的判决以来，随着禁令的实施，Harris已经在全国巡回演出。今年3月，她作为第一位访问堕胎诊所的副总统创造了历史，这一举动表明了她对堕胎权利的强烈支持。今年春天，当为期六周的禁令在佛罗里达州生效时，她在当时的共和党总统候选人罗恩·德桑蒂斯的家乡发表了激烈的演讲。
她在中明确表示她周二的第一次集会堕胎权将继续成为她作为总统候选人的核心议题。
哈里斯说:“我们这些相信生育自由的人将为女性的选择权而斗争，因为人们不必放弃自己的信仰或根深蒂固的信念，同意政府不应该告诉她该做什么。”周三在印第安纳州的一次集会上，向泽塔·菲·贝塔女生联谊会发表演讲时说。
加州大学戴维斯分校(University of California，Davis)法学教授、堕胎历史学家玛丽·齐格勒(Mary Ziegler)说，这并不是说拜登没有将堕胎权作为他的政府和竞选活动的核心原则。然而，她说，他受到代际和宗教差异的限制，这使得哈里斯“在生殖问题上更有效、更有激情。”
齐格勒说，如果哈里斯在11月获胜，“我认为会有一些实质性的差异，语气上的明显差异，然后，也许会，也许不会，结果上的差异。”
结果——如将Roe vs. Wade编入法律，甚至进一步保护节育或体外受精，或寻求进一步的法律挑战以保护堕胎权——将主要取决于民主党人在11月的投票中如何表现，以及哈里斯是否有机会确认最高法院的更多法官。
卫生保健
哈里斯在周一对竞选工作人员的讲话中表示，她的竞选团队将“为建设一个每个人都能负担得起医疗保健的国家而奋斗。”
这全民医疗保险计划哈里斯在2020年提出的计划将涵盖所有必要的医疗服务，包括急诊室就诊、医生就诊、视力、牙科、助听器、精神健康和物质使用障碍治疗，以及全面的生殖健康护理服务。该计划有10年的过渡期。
根据哈里斯的计划，美国人可以在面向所有人的公共医疗保险计划和私营保险公司的计划之间做出选择，私营保险公司必须遵守严格的医疗保险成本和收益要求。
为了支付这个项目，她被提议的对年收入超过100，000美元的家庭征收额外保险费，对生活费用较高地区的家庭征收较高的收入门槛。
2020年，拜登呼吁一个不那么雄心勃勃的“为所有想要的人提供医疗保险”公共选择计划。然而，根据点名，自2020年12月以来，他没有提到过公共选择-在他上任之前。
拜登此前也曾暗示他会否决全民医疗保险法案，认为它会增加中产阶级的税收。
但是副总统过去与拜登的政策分歧对于哈里斯总统来说可能并不意味着什么。
“我不指望(拜登的议程)会有任何改变，”美利坚大学(American University)政府学教授大卫·巴克(David Barker)说。“除非有迹象表明这在政治上是现实的，否则我认为没有人会去尝试。”
巴克补充说，较小的变化，类似于胰岛素的价格上限为35美元对于在通货膨胀削减法案中享受医疗保险的老年人来说，这是哈里斯政府的“他们将继续的方式”。
刑事司法
尽管哈里斯在2020年的初选中因其检察官背景而受到左翼的尖锐批评，但她在那一年的政纲中包含了一系列雄心勃勃的刑事司法系统改革，旨在结束大规模监禁和打击种族不平等。
哈里斯的政纲主张大麻合法化，并删除一些与大麻相关的定罪;结束现金保释和强制性最低限额;消除快克和粉状可卡因之间的量刑差距;停止使用私人监狱和死刑。
Adobe股票
她的刑事司法计划还试图加强司法部对警察部门的监督，并限制他们获得某些种类的军事装备。在共和党人分发的一个片段中，她还主张恢复以前被监禁的人的投票权，并在五年后自动清除不严重的非暴力犯罪。
拜登政府在刑事司法方面最重要的行动是对大麻采取行动减少与毒品有关的犯罪的联邦刑事处罚，赦免那些因简单持有大麻而受到刑事指控的人。
尽管哈里斯的2020平台远远超出了拜登的刑事司法平台，但她最近的言论没有表明这将是她的竞选主题。周一，她在特拉华州威尔明顿竞选总部的演讲中没有提到这个问题。
Abortion, Israel-Hamas War, criminal justice: Where Harris' agenda could break from Biden's on key issues for voters
After more than three years supporting President Joe Biden's policy agenda as his deputy, Vice President Kamala Harris must articulate her own agenda for her presidential campaign -- and the first term that could follow.
Since Bidenannounced on Sunday that he was leaving the 2024 race, Harris has secured commitments from enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee if they all honor their commitment when voting, according to ABC News reporting.
Now Harris -- who ran well to the left of Biden during her unsuccessful presidential primary campaign in 2020, but has since become a loyal advocate of the administration's policies -- is taking on the challenge of establishing her own path forward and stance on key issues that matter most to voters as the November election approaches.
Her 2020 platform and some remarks from during her vice presidency offer a glimpse of a Harris presidency that could prove more progressive than Biden's in several key areas.
Israel-Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congresson Wednesday, with Harris -- who, as vice president, customarily presides over such proceedings -- noticeably absent.
While Harris' team has said her absence is merely theresult of a scheduling conflictand the vice president will meet one-on-one with Netanyahu later this week, she has in recent months signaled that she may take a more stern approach toIsrael's war with Hamas in Gaza.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Harris was initially a strong supporter of Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas -- knocking down a suggestion that the Biden administration might condition aid to the country in November, saying "we are not going to create any conditions on the support that we are giving Israel to defend itself."
But by December, Harris began wading deeper into Middle Eastern diplomacy during a trip to Dubai for a United Nations climate conference where she also met with leaders from the region. During the trip, she took a more forceful tone with Israel than many other senior administration officials had done at the time, declaring "too many innocent Palestinians have been killed" and saying the administration believes "Israel must do more to protect innocent civilians."
In a March address in Selma, Alabama, marking the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Harris called out Israel again -- saying its government "must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid -- no excuses" and calling on Israel to open border crossings and ensure humanitarian workers were not targeted.
In an interview published earlier this monthin The Nation, Harris said young Americans protesting the war in Gaza are "showing exactly what the human emotion should be" and that while she "absolutely rejects" some of their statements, she understands "the emotion behind it."
And she's been vocal in her support of an at least temporary cease-fire, saying during her March speech in Selma that "given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate cease-fire" for at least six weeks.
Harris doesn't have a long-standing relationship with Netanyahu in the same way Biden does, but she met with Israel's Benny Gantz at the White House while he was serving on the country's war cabinet in March. She also met with Israel's President Isaac Herzog earlier this year on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Abortion
Already the administration's lead messenger on the central campaign issue of abortion rights, Harris has been consistently more boldly outspoken on the issue than Biden.
Before running for president in 2020, she went after crisis pregnancy centers as California attorney general and went viral for a line of questioning with then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, where she pressed him to name a single law that polices what men can do with their bodies.
Her 2020 platform included a proposal to pass a Reproductive Rights Act that would have taken affirmative steps to enforce Roe v. Wade, which theSupreme Court later overruled in 2022.
Since the Supreme Court's decision affecting Roe, Harris has toured the country as bans went into place. She made history by being the first vice president to ever visit an abortion clinic in March -- a move that demonstrated how loudly supportive of abortion rights she is -- and delivered a fiery speech on then-GOP presidential candidate Ron Desantis' home turf in Florida this spring when a six-week ban went into effect there.
She made it clear inher first rally on Tuesdaythat abortion rights would continue to be a central issue for her as a presidential candidate.
"We who believe in reproductive freedom will fight for a woman's right to choose because one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do," Harrissaid in a rally in Indiana on Wednesday, addressing the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.
That's not to say Biden didn't also make abortion rights a central tenet of his administration and campaign, said Mary Ziegler, a professor of law at University of California, Davis and abortion historian. However, she said, he was constrained by generational and religious differences that made Harris "the much more effective, passionate messenger on reproductive issues."
Should Harris win in November, "I think there would be some differences in substance, really significant differences in tone, and then, maybe or maybe not, differences in outcome," Ziegler said.
Outcomes -- such as codifying Roe vs. Wade into law, going even further to also protect birth control or in-vitro fertilization, or pursuing further legal challenges to protect abortion rights -- would depend primarily on how Democrats perform down the ballot in November and whether Harris has the opportunity to confirm any more justices to the Supreme Court.
Health care
In her remarks to campaign staff Monday, Harris said that her campaign will "fight to build a nation where every person has affordable health care."
TheMedicare for All planthat Harris proposed in 2020 would have covered all medically necessary services, including emergency room visits, doctor visits, vision, dental, hearing aids, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, and comprehensive reproductive health care services. The plan had a 10-year transition period.
Under Harris' plan, Americans would have had a choice between the public Medicare for All plan and plans from private insurers that would have had to adhere to strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits.
To pay for the program, sheproposedcharging an additional premium to households making above $100,000 per year, with a higher income threshold for those in higher-cost-of-living areas.
In 2020, Biden called for a less ambitious "Medicare for all who want it" public option plan. However, according to Roll Call, he hasn't mentioned that public option since December of 2020 -- before he took office.
Biden also previouslysuggested he would vetoa Medicare for All bill, arguing that it would raise taxes for the middle class.
But the vice president's past policy differences with Biden may not mean all that much for a Harris presidency.
"I wouldn't expect it to change at all [from Biden's agenda]," David Barker, a professor of government at American University, said. "Until there's some indication that that's politically realistic, I don't think anybody's going to even try."
Barker added that smaller changes, similar to the$35 price cap on insulinfor seniors on Medicare in the Inflation Reduction Act, is "the way they'll continue" in a Harris administration.
Criminal justice
While Harris faced sharp criticism from the left during the 2020 primary for her background as a prosecutor, her platform that year contained a slate of ambitious reforms to the criminal justice system aimed at ending mass incarceration and fighting racial inequities.
Harris' platform advocated to legalize marijuana and expunge some marijiuana-related convictions; end cash bail and mandatory minimums; eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine; and stop the use of private prisons and the death penalty.
Adobe Stock
Her criminal justice plan also sought to increase the Department of Justice's oversight of police departments and limit them from acquiring certain kinds of military equipment. In a clip that has been circulated by Republicans, she also advocated for restoring the right of formerly-incarcerated people to vote and automatically expunging non-serious, non-violent offenses after five years.
The Biden administration's most significant action on criminal justice came when ittook action on marijuana, reducing federal criminal penalties for offenses relating to the drug and pardoning those with criminal charges for simple possession of marijuana.
While Harris' 2020 platform went well beyond Biden's on criminal justice, her recent remarks make no indication that it will be a major theme of her campaign. The issue went unmentioned in her speech at the campaign's Wilmington, Delaware, headquarters on Monday.
