WHAT DOES VP HARRIS’S
RALEIGH ECONOMIC
MESSAGE MEAN FOR BLACKS?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
As an eventful four-day Democratic National Convention in Chicago comes to an end tonite with Vice President Kamala Harris making history by formally accepting her party’s nomination for the presidency, questions are still being asked about the economic proposals she laid out almost a week ago when she came to Raleigh.
By now, many analysts and political observers have gone over the broad strokes of VP Harris’ proposed “Opportunity Economy,” an agenda she has promised more details on to come. But once her campaign does provide the fine print, how will her economic vision not only help middle-class Americans, as promised, but African-Americans in particular?
When VP Harris made her eighth visit to North Carolina this year last Friday, August 16th, she was greeted enthusiastically as she came off of Air Force Two by Gov. Roy Cooper, U.S. Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC), Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams, and a host of other state and local Democratic Party officials and dignitaries.
Harris was then whisked away in a fleet of Black SUVs to Wake Technical Community College - North in Raleigh, where staging was setup for what had been touted as a major address about the Harris/Walz campaign’s economic policy.
This was her first visit to the state since formally announcing that she would run for the presidency as the Democratic nominee after Pres. Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last June against Republican nominee Donald Trump forced him to drop out of the race in July. A scheduled campaign visit last week was cancelled due to weather-related concerns over Tropical Storm Debby.
Before an excited invite-only crowd of Wake Tech students, Democratic elected officials and campaign supporters, VP Harris laid out her vision for lowering the cost of living for most Americans, what she called helping the average citizen “…not just get by, but get ahead.”
She offered a policy vision for addressing many of the top economic concerns of most voters, namely instituting a federal ban on corporate price-gouging of groceries that have remained high long after pandemic-era supply shortages have recovered, being able to purchase a new home with $25,000 in federal downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers, raising the minimum wage, eliminating taxes on tips for service industry workers and giving lower and middle income families tax breaks by expanding the federal child tax credit to up to $3,600, and $6,000 for newborns.
“Together we will build what I call an ‘opportunity economy,’” Harris told her cheering audience. “An economy where everyone can have a real chance to succeed, no matter who they are. … Your salary should be enough to provide you and your family with a good quality of life. No child should have to grow up in poverty. After years of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity.”
VP Harris also proposed bringing down the cost of new homes by building at least three million, thus adding more units to the current inventory. Plus, she proposed also expanding the earned income tax credit for lower-income taxpayers with children, which could cut their effective tax rate by at least $1,500.
She also wants to further lower the costs of prescription drugs, Obamacare health insurance premiums, and work with states to cancel medical debt for lower and middle-income families.
North Carolina, for example, has announced a new program to help families eliminate their medical debt to relieve them of the financial burden.
Contrasting her economic vision to that of the Trump campaign, which has blasted VP Harris and Pres. Biden for being responsible for high inflation, Harris said, “This election, I do strongly believe, is about two very different visions for our nation. One, ours, focused on the future, and the other focused on the past.”
So how could VP Harris’ economic agenda positively speak to the African-American community?
The part what has not been said out loud since Harris delivered her remarks last week is that if she is elected the first black woman to the American presidency in November, she not only will institute her own economic policies, but may push for a continuation of the Biden Administration's “..economic opportunities for Black Americans.”
It was last April when VP Harris embarked on a multi-state “Economic Opportunity Tour for Black Americans” on behalf of the president, which, according to reporting, had a major focus on energizing and engaging Black men, which polling in the seven swing states found that 30% of whom were not happy with the Democratic Party, and were considering voting from Trump.
At the time, VP Harris was promoting Black entrepreneurship.
“…[W]e are in the process of putting a lot of money in the streets of America," Harris said at the time during a podcast in Atlanta.
She talked about “…plans to focus on investing in communities, building wealth and ensuring that Americans of all colors have economic opportunities,” according to reporting from Reuters.
That reporting continued, “Harris has made more than 35 trips to 16 states since the start of the year, including a Black History Month tour of historically Black colleges and universities and a March trip to Black Wall Street in Durham, North Carolina, to announce $32 million to support historically underserved entrepreneurs.”
Add to this the Biden Administration creating 15 million new jobs, having the lowest Black unemployment rate in history, plus securing approximately $100 billion in federal contracts for small disadvantaged and Black-owned businesses.
“Let’s keep our eyes on the prize,” stated the online publication Rollingout, “…closing the income gap, building Black wealth, and ensuring a prosperous future for the next generations.”
In short, if VP Harris can build on the economic enrichment programs for African-Americans she promoted before running for the presidency, with the new policy proposals she will no doubt have to fight to get through Congress for all Americans if elected president, her economic agenda for African-Americans could indeed, be successful.
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IF TRUMP WINS IN NC,
SO COULD THE TOP OF
THE NCGOP TICKET
By Cash Michaels
An analysis
Right now, over two months before the crucial November 5th elections, it seems clear that as former President Donald Trump goes, so could, possibly, the top of the Republican Party ticket in North Carolina.
To put it bluntly, according to former NCGOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse, if Trump wins the state by at least two percentage points in this, his third run for the presidency, that could still allow many Democrats running for state offices, like Josh Stein for governor, Mo Green for state superintendent for Public Instruction and Jessica Holmes for state auditor, a chance to win, even if Vice President Kamala Harris fails to be victorious here.
Trump defeated Joe Biden in NC, 50.1% to 48.7% in 2020, and Hillary Clinton, 49.8% to 46.2% in 2016. In both elections, however, Democrat Roy Cooper won for NC governor.
But if Trump should win North Carolina by at least five points, adds Woodhouse, currently a columnist for the conservative Carolina Journal, that’s enough coattails to pull top of the ballot controversial Republican candidates Mark Robinson for governor, Dan Bishop for state attorney general and Michele Morrow for state superintendent of Public Instruction into the winner's circle.
Technically, the reverse would be true if VP Harris were to win North Carolina in a commanding fashion, bringing down-ballot Democrats along with her as well.
As many political observers will agree, even with VP Harris expected to get a polling bump out of the Democratic National Convention and pulling pretty much dead even with Trump in North Carolina currently, anything can happen between now and the November general election, including an “October Surprise’ for either candidate.
By that time, VP Harris and Trump will have had at least one televised debate (Sept. 10th on ABC Television has been agreed to), and the vice president is expected to have fully fleshed out her policy positions on the economy, securing the border and foreign policy by then..
Doing so opens Harris up to more scrutiny, criticism and negative advertising, however, which tends to push polling numbers down as voters get closer to Election Day.
Still, Harris’ support among voting African-Americans, and especially Black women, the Democratic party’s strongest base of supporters in North Carolina and across the country, is expected to be as high as 80%. If she is also able to garner strong support from young people, as well as traditional Democratic voters, VP Harris could turn North Carolina blue again.
That would be good news for Democratic down-ballot candidates.
But if that suggested scenario doesn’t happen, the alternative may be too harsh for Democrats to take, and could cement North Carolina as a solid red state for generations.
Beyond having a majority Republican legislature, state Supreme Court and NC Court of Appeals, having Trump win not just North Carolina, but the presidency, might also mean a GOP takeover of the NC Council of State.
That means conservative firebrand Lt. Governor Mark Robinson would make history becoming the first black governor in state history. But it also means he would bring all of his divisive controversies with him, including being against federal funding of public education.
The same is true for state superintendent for Public Instruction candidate, Republican Michele Morrow, whose past controversial statements about wanting to see President Barack Obama put before a firing squad on pay-per-view television, among others, would be part of her record as she took control of the state’s public education system.
And Congressman Dan Bishop, who says he is running for state attorney general to ensure that law-and-order is upheld in North Carolina, but demonstrated low regard for the civil rights of LGBTQ+ citizens by being the chief sponsor of the infamous HB 2 “Bathroom Bill” in 2016, which prohibited those citizens from using public restrooms if contrary their gender.
Again, if Donald Trump wins North Carolina by at least five points in November, that means his voters soundly rejected a VP Harris’ candidacy.
And it may also mean the GOP's Republican down-ballot could be swept in to what would be a solid red state era for North Carolina.
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