On an August afternoon last year in Washington, Kamala Harris appeared at a retail village to promote the Biden administration’s economic record.
“Bidenomics is working,” the vice president announced, touting the latest round of job numbers. “That is called Bidenomics, and we are very proud of Bidenomics.”
It was a fateful declaration, one that has dogged Harris since she took over as the Democratic standard-bearer and has attempted to seize the mantle of change candidate in the 2024 presidential race.
The Trump campaign and its allies have spent more than $38 million replaying that soundbite almost 70,000 times in campaign advertisements since Harris became the Democratic nominee, looking to capitalize on persistent voter concerns about the economy and blunt Harris’ turn-the-page messaging by yoking her to President Joe Biden’s record.
One of the ads, backed by more than $13 million, simply juxtaposes Harris on the campaign trail in 2024, speaking to voter concerns about rising prices, with the clip from 2023, and includes no other narration.
“Everyday prices are too high – food, rent, gas, back-to-school clothes,” Harris says in the clip featured in the ad. What Immediately follows is the 2023 clip of her saying, “That is called Bidenomics.”
Another one of the ads, also backed by more than $13 million, contrasts news coverage of inflation with the same 2023 clip, taking the same spare approach, also with no other narration.
A third ad from the Trump campaign, launched last week and already backed by more than $3 million, opens with the clip of Harris saying that “Bidenomics is working,” before a narrator cuts in with “It’s not” and references more critical news coverage of inflation. “Yet Harris still says, ‘Bidenomics working.’ No, it isn’t,” the ad ends. A fourth ad featuring the soundbite went up Friday.
Throughout the campaign, Trump and his allies have taken a two-track approach to their attacks against Harris – on the one hand linking immigration and crime, and amplifying public safety concerns; while on the other, slamming the Biden-Harris economic record, with a particular focus on inflation.
The spree of ads replaying Harris’ endorsement of “Bidenomics” reflects the latter approach, and that share of the pro-Trump messaging has been increasing in recent weeks as the campaign fine-tunes its advertising strategy for the final weeks of the race.
The ads are aimed at leveraging the advantage that polls show voters give Trump on economic issues and magnifying persistent concerns about inflation and a potential recession – even as inflation in the actual economy has slowed and job growth has continued.
Harris and her allies, meanwhile, have made a concerted effort to blunt those criticisms, also leaning into economic messaging in their campaign advertising. Last week, Harris’ campaign launched a series of ads on her economic pitch, specifically tailored to key swing states.
“Lowering the cost of living will be a defining goal of my presidency. I’ll lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for everyone. And I will work to pass the first ever federal ban on price gouging on food. More than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut. We will end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class,” Harris says in the ads.
In addition, her campaign has spent more than $10 million airing an ad in which Harris says, “You want lower prices and lower taxes. I believe you want to just not get by, but you want to get ahead,” before delivering her pitch for an “opportunity economy.”
And another top Harris ad contrasts her approach with Trump’s. “It’s a very different vision than Donald Trump’s. His plans will raise costs and taxes on the vast majority of Americans. We need to be thinking about the future and how we make it better for families like yours,” Harris says in the ad.
Democrats – including Biden and Harris – ditched the “Bidenomics” branding long ago as part of their messaging on the economy. For the vice president, her approach to the issue since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket speaks to the balancing act she has faced when it comes to embracing the administration’s record, including during her first sit-down interview as the nominee last month with CNN.
“So you maintain Bidenomics is a success?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked Harris during an exchange about her economic plans.
“I maintain that when we do the work,” Harris responded before launching into a litany of the administration’s achievements. “I’ll say that that’s good work. There’s more to do, but that’s good work.”
The backdrop to the back-and-forth over who is best for voters’ pocketbooks is a US economy that has continued to post solid data, even as prices are higher than four years ago and interest rates are elevated. Inflation has slowed significantly from its peak in 2022, and the US economy added 142,000 jobs in August, marking stronger growth than a worrisome lower number in July.
Still, the ads from the Trump campaign also reflect the basic conundrum facing all politicians – they spend hours before the public, staking out positions and making statements, all while political operatives and ad-makers watch for a moment to capitalize. Harris, standing in southeast DC in August 2023, could not have known that exactly one year later, she would face the challenge of pitching an entirely different vision to voters.
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