Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her first policy-oriented speech as a Democratic presidential candidate on Friday, targeting price gouging – a sign that her tumultuous campaign could shake up major corporations and corporate leaders.
Harris will travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, a state where Democrats hope to win this election, where she will outline her plan to “reduce costs for middle-class families and combat corporate price gouging,” her campaign team said on Tuesday.
Harris canceled an event in North Carolina last week because of Tropical Storm Debby. Focusing her first major political speech on the economy and delivering it in North Carolina shows how her campaign has revived Democrats’ hopes of flipping a state they have only won twice in the past half century.
For her campaign team, states like Pennsylvania are a must, but North Carolina is a difficult spot. Biden lost the state to Trump by 1.3 percent – just 74,000 votes. But his prospects there were bleak before he resigned on July 21.
Targeting corporate greed
Harris’ speech will be closely watched to see how her style and substance differ from those of Biden, whose economic policies received poor marks from voters angry about the cost of housing, medicine, food and gasoline.
On Saturday, Harris announced her support for repealing the tip tax, a position similar to Trump’s. Harris will hold an event with Biden at the White House on Thursday that is expected to focus on health care costs.
Biden blamed corporate greed for the still-high prices, accusing them of increasing profits by reducing portion sizes and not passing on falling costs to consumers.
Major consumer goods companies have raised prices in recent quarters, and food prices have risen 25% between 2019 and 2023.
During her tenure as California Attorney General from 2011 to 2016, Harris fought against “corporate greed and price gouging” and challenged pharmaceutical, oil, electronics and cosmetics companies, a campaign representative said.
Harris “knows the costs are too high and will make fighting inflation a priority from day one,” added the official, who asked not to be anonymous in advance of the event.
This approach is very different from that of Trump, who argued that easing regulation in many industries – from finance to energy – would reduce costs and boost growth.
