Where VP Kamala Harris stands on hot-button issues

Context: Harris — who served as district attorney of San Francisco, as attorney general of California and as a U.S. senator from the state between 2017 and 2021 — could help electrify an exhausted, disconsolate party.

• Ever since her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris, in her capacity as vice president, has not had as many opportunities to describe her personal political vision for America.
• However, Harris will set the course of the Democratic party if she becomes the party's presidential nominee —and the country's, too, if she takes the oath in January.

Between the lines: Her stances on most political issues likely do not significantly differ from Biden's or the party line, but she could add energy behind key political initiatives this election.

Here's where Harris stands on a few on hot-button issues:

Reproductive health care

Harris, the first vice president to tour an abortion clinic while in office, has repeatedly criticized the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade and has said Trump is to blame.

• Trump, for his part, has repeatedly bragged about appointing three high court justices who joined the Dobbs decision.
• While Biden, a devoted Catholic, is personally uncomfortable with abortion but has been adamant that a woman has a right to choose, Harris has been the administration's surrogate for leading the Biden-Harris campaign's efforts on abortion rights.

During the 2020 election, Harris proposed as a presidential candidate federal abortion protections that extended beyond Roe, which found that the Fourteenth Amendment's individual privacy protections included the right to abortion.

• Kamala's proposal was modeled after the Voting Rights Act, requiring a "pre-clearance" process for states before they could enact new laws affecting abortion access.
• A similar law would not be possible because of the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling.

Harris fiercely defended other forms of reproductive health care, like in-vitro fertilization and contraception, warning that they may be vulnerable after the court's abortion ruling.

• She has called on Congress to pass legislation protecting reproductive rights, including abortion access, but has also worked to shield them on the state level amid congressional dysfunction and gridlock.

Climate change

In some ways, a Harris presidency may be more progressive on certain climate and energy policies than the Biden administration, Axios' Ben Geman reports.

• During the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, she called for a fracking ban, co-sponsored Green New Deal legislation and supported abolishing the Senate filibuster to pass climate legislation.
• Harris later did not back those stances after being tapped vice president.
• She may have to continue to avoid making similar endorsements as nominee to appeal to voters in Pennsylvania, which is a critical swing state that has also experienced a fracking boom in recent years.

Harris would continue implementing the Biden administration's landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which provides hundreds of billions of dollars in tax subsidies and grants for low-carbon and renewable energy projects.

• Harris would also likely continue or expand on the Biden administration's efforts on environmental justice, which had been a key focus for her even before she became vice president.
• "She will fight every day for all Americans to have access to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment," Gina McCarthy, who served as Biden's national climate adviser, said in a statement Sunday.

U.S. border

Identifying the root causes of migration from Central and South America was one of Harris' mandates as vice president.

• That relatively minor role in the Biden administration's larger border reform efforts attracted border-related political attacks from Republicans even before Biden bowed out.
• The number of encounters between U.S. Border Patrol officials and migrants have reached record highs under the Biden administration — and fallen slightly since earlier this this year.
• A majority of voters have soured on immigration, according to a recent Gallup poll.

If Harris takes office, she would likely continue the Biden administration's efforts to reform current border policies to provide pathways to citizenship for immigrants in the U.S., including Dreamers, and expedite asylum processes in the country.

• Such reforms face a high risk of failure in a political climate hostile to political compromise, as they would require authorization from Congress, which has proven dysfunctional on immigration legislation for years.
• Earlier this year, Harris had called on Congress to pass immigration reform and border legislation brokered by both Republicans and Democrats, but the bill failed in the Senate after Trump's allies in the House opposed it.

Economic policy

The next president will inherit an economy that is, at the moment, experiencing solid growth in the face of stickier-than-expected inflation and signs of weakness in the labor market.

• On the campaign trail, Harris has championed the Biden administration's economic policies, like the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. If she assumes office, aspects of Harris' economic policy could be more progressive than Biden's.
• Like Biden, she supports increasing taxes on the ultra wealthy, but as a senator, she also introduced legislation that would have given a tax credit of up to $6,000 for low- and middle-income households.
• She emphasized that tax credit during her previous presidential campaign, including it in a tax policy platform that also included credits for renters and parents and new taxes on stock and bond trades, fossil fuel companies and pharmaceutical companies.

Go deeper: Harris campaign raises a record $81 million in 24 hours