Kamala Harris’ Vibes-Heavy, Policy-Lite Campaign Leaves Businesses Guessing

(Bloomberg) -- When Bernie Sanders took the stage in Chicago, it was vintage Bernie — a screed against Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Everything and, of course, billionaires.

Minutes later, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, heir to a vast hotel fortune, stood at that same spot to brag that he is an actual billionaire wealthier than Donald Trump. Then Ken Chenault, who ran one of the largest credit-card companies in the world, pitched Kamala Harris as unabashedly pro business.

The jarring juxtaposition is in many ways typical of the vibe coursing through the city hosting the Democratic National Convention this week. One in which JB’s sister, Penny Pritzker, proselytizes the vice president’s strengths to corporate giants, while prominent union leader Shawn Fain threatens strike action from the floor of the jamboree.

In this moment of rapid transition from President Joe Biden to Harris, a party eager to woo a broad coalition is selling hope and joy, wrapped in memes, and served with a side of Beyoncé’s .

What it has avoided is providing economic policy specifics that could pit one faction against another.

Pollster Frank Luntz said Democrats are deploying the playbook with a smart approach. “Be universal rather than cut people out,” he said. “And it’s a good time for them because the Republicans are so angry with corporate America.”

And so far, it’s working. Democrats who were struggling to sell four more years of Biden are now in a tight battle where the polls favor their candidate in the 2024 race. After the president withdrew his bid for reelection on July 21, Harris raised over $200 million for her campaign through the beginning of this month.

But Harris has given no interviews and signaled she no longer holds prior positions on fracking and private healthcare. Her policy offerings have been largely limited to four-and-a-half pages outlining her economic agenda and a party platform, adopted during the convention, that contains repeated references to “a second Biden term.” Her website doesn’t have a policy section.

“The vice president and the president are incredibly proud of the record they’ve built over the last four years, so in that way, I think it makes it easy to roll out new policy,” campaign adviser Brian Nelson told a Bloomberg News roundtable.

Harris will emphasize lowering the cost burden for the middle class, he said, adding that her administration will be able to pay for the policies by “ensuring that billionaires and corporations pay their fair share.”

When Harris takes the stage on Thursday at the convention to formally accept her party’s nomination, her supporters and detractors will be watching to see if her speech breaks with the content-lite messaging and offers details.

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Cautiously curious business executives, who were unenthused by Biden and are uncertain about a potential Trump 2.0 presidency, are trying to tease out if Harris, aside from the standard political rhetoric, is a candidate more willing to pitch the party back toward the center.

An increasingly bold faction within the Democratic party wants to stem the tide of Wall Street billionaires and Silicon Valley titans embracing Trump. Despite plans to jack up the corporate tax rate — an unlikely lift in a divided Congress — they see a decisive moment to wean away big companies from the instinctive belief that the Republican party will be best for them.

“The CEOs who have rationalized themselves into support for Donald Trump are sawing off the branch they’re sitting on,” said John Avlon, a New York Democrat running to flip a Republican seat on the eastern end of Long Island, which includes the Hamptons playgrounds of the ultra-rich.

“The underlying ethos is absolutely anti-business, particularly if you care about liberal capitalist democracy or an independent Fed or free trade with fiscal responsibility,” he said of how the GOP has morphed under Trump. “I think it does create an opportunity for the Democratic party.”

For business leaders, the hope is that the Democratic party, in presenting Harris as a break from the past, will also formulate new economic policies that lean away from some Biden administration moves such as increased regulatory scrutiny on Wall Street, skepticism towards cryptocurrencies and the appointment of antitrust warrior Lina Khan to head the Federal Trade Commission.

“There’s things where Democrats don’t like everything Biden has done on business issues, but there’s still a feeling that issues are up for debate,” said Adam Kovacevich, who helped build Google’s influence operation in Washington and now runs a center-left tech policy group.

The Harris campaign’s lack of policy detail is unusual in the modern political era, a byproduct of her becoming the first major-party candidate nominated without staging a primary campaign. Biden’s historically late decision to exit the race spared her from the debates, interviews, and town halls where a candidate’s policy platform typically takes shape.

By contrast, Biden had delivered a State of the Union address earlier this year sketching out his vision and delivered a budget proposal totaling hundreds of pages outlining how he would prioritize federal spending — on top of countless campaign fact sheets and policy addresses.

The plans would amount to significant changes to how the US levies the wealthy — including increasing the capital-gains tax rate for those earning at least $1 million, proposing a 25% minimum rate on households worth at least $100 million and more punitive treatment for dealing with assets when someone dies.

Biden also proposed letting Trump’s corporate tax cut expire, lifting the top rate back to 28% from 21%, a measure that Harris has backed in recent weeks. Whether she continues to advocate for the full gamut of Biden’s tax plans is unclear.

In some ways, Harris’ current strategy is comparable to that of Trump, whose political career has been defined by quick policy pivots and a disinclination for bogging down his populist agenda with policy details. The Republican presidential nominee has disavowed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, an effort by former aides to sketch out a policy foundation for a possible second term. The party adopted an abbreviated 16-page policy platform during its convention in Milwaukee in July.

Still, Trump has rolled out a series of proposals — everything from new tax breaks and cryptocurrency ideas to broadening the set of crimes eligible for capital punishment — as he’s spent nearly two years campaigning.

The Harris campaign’s approach has yielded a decidedly different convention setting than the Republican event just 90 miles away and a month before.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the GOP hammered home the threat of an unrecognizable country if Trump is thwarted, Kid Rock sang to the crowd and Hulk Hogan ripped off his shirt on stage. In Chicago, at the arena made famous by Michael Jordan, the Democratic delegates have been feasting on appearances from Lil Jon, John Legend and Oprah Winfrey.

United Airlines Holdings Inc., with headquarters in Chicago, threw a party on the 99th floor of the Willis Tower that included an appearance from Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby. “The opportunity for the event really centered around the convention being in our hometown,” the company said in a statement.

McDonald’s Corp., another of the city’s corporate heavyweights, hosted a lunch where Governor Pritzker was present and Blackstone Inc. hosted a political discussion ahead of Harris’ speech on Thursday.

“There’s so many of our bigger companies and sponsors — United Airlines, McDonald’s — that are within half a mile proximity from here, that have been hosting their own ancillary events, doing real business,” said Leah Israel, a founding partner at Lafayette Advisors, who helped the host committee raise a record $94 million for the DNC.

“People do seem excited about her, and I think are doing what they need to do as business owners, which is to make sure that their policy priorities are being discussed now and loudly and their teams are doing that,” she said.

To be sure, several companies supported both the DNC and the RNC, but the number of corporate events was amplified in Chicago due to their large presence in the city. The host committees even worked together to approach firms with similar asks for donations, Israel said.

Those doing the rounds around town include Penny Pritzker, the former Commerce Secretary, and Gina Raimondo, who currently holds that seat. They’ve been appearing around Chicago championing the idea that the Harris administration will back big business initiatives. Raimondo’s role in shepherding chip manufacturing in the US has been embraced by corporate leaders.

Tony West, Harris’ brother-in-law and the chief legal officer at Uber Technologies Inc., is volunteering on the campaign, while other prominent supporters include investment bankers Blair Effron and Ray McGuire.

“You can walk and chew gum at the same time,” said Tom Nides, who has cycled between Democratic administration roles and Wall Street over the last three decades. “You can support labor and business. And that’s the message they are trying to communicate.”

If Harris were to release more details about her policy plans, it could be used as ammunition by Republicans who have struggled to define her, said Rachel Bitecofer, a Democratic strategist and political scientist.

That was evident this month when Harris suggested offering $25,000 for first-time homeowners to help ease a housing crisis, and suggested a federal ban on food and grocery price gouging.

It was a rare moment of specificity that immediately sparked criticism from economists and corporations that it could stoke inflation and lead to price controls. Since then there's been few other detailed proposals.

“If I was on the team, I’d be telling them how pleased I am that they are not getting into giving them bait,” Bitecofer said. “There’s not enough time — and it's not just about feeding bait; the convention program is showing a broader coalition being built.”

The vice president is likely doing a better job in articulating her policy plans at fundraisers, Bitecofer said. “The donor set is looking at Kamala Harris as a standard bearer for the status quo and looking at Trump’s program as radical change,” she said.

--With assistance from Kim Chipman and Mary Schlangenstein.

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