In a race that hangs on starkly polarized views of the nation's future, voters will decide between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Harris only secured the Democratic nomination in July when President Joe Biden — facing pressure from party leaders — withdrew from the race after a poor showing in his lone debate with Trump. Republicans are hoping for a repeat of the populist tide that propelled Trump into the White House in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton. Four years later, Trump narrowly lost to Biden in a contest heavily clouded by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Harris, 60, seeks to make history as the first woman elected president. The former prosecutor and U.S. senator from California has campaigned on a platform touting relief and economic opportunity for middle-class Americans, who have been strained by the rising costs of housing, health care, child care and groceries. The Harris campaign also has strongly vowed to restore and protect reproductive rights, drawing on the example of work done in Minnesota by Democratic running mate Gov. Tim Walz.
Trump, 78, remains the driving force of a Republican platform that prioritizes domestic economic growth, reducing taxes and business regulations, and curtailing illegal immigration from the southern border. The businessman and former reality TV star has leaned on his charisma to overcome the shadow of multiple criminal cases against him and lingering reservations about how his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election precipitated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Trump is joined on the ticket by JD Vance, the U.S. senator from Ohio whose Catholic conservatism appeals to wider reaches of the party's base.
The whirlwind 2024 presidential race — including Biden's exit and two attempted assassinations of Trump — is expected to hinge on the results of key swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia.
Below is a look at how the Harris and Trump campaigns compare on three pivotal issues in the election.
Economy and Taxes
During the few months of her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris has reinforced core pieces of Biden's economic policy while differentiating her own goals. She also has tried to reframe her own policy stances from her more progressive run in the Democratic primaries four years ago.
The Harris campaign's biggest economic proposals include giving first-time home buyers up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance and directing investments to spur the development of 3 million new housing units. For families, Harris wants to cap child care costs at no more than 7% of their household incomes. Under Harris' plan, parents of newborns would get a $6,000 child tax credit and families with older children could receive up to $3,600 in tax credits through a restored Biden administration program.
Harris also has promised to invest in small business growth by expanding the startup expense tax deduction from $5,000 to $50,000 for entrepreneurs. She claims doing so could help create up to 25 million new businesses nationwide.
A central plank of Trump's "America First" economic policy would be to impose up to 20% tariffs on all goods imported into the United States and a 60% tariff on goods imported from China. Trump also would lower the corporate tax rate for companies that produce goods in the United States, part of an agenda he says would stimulate domestic manufacturing and create more factory jobs. Some economists have warned that heavy tariffs could end up increasing costs and worsen inflation for U.S. consumers.
The Trump campaign has sharply criticized Biden and Harris for high inflation during the pandemic and in the years that followed, which caused the Federal Reserve to elevate interest rates and tighten lending for an extended period. In September, the Fed cut interest rates for the first time since Trump was still in office. Trump has said he wants the White House to have a more direct role in working with the Fed to set interest rates.
The Trump campaign also plans to extend the 2017 tax cuts from his first administration, which are set to expire next year, and reduce the federal corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%. The former president has floated creating additional tax cuts for senior citizens, tipped workers, people earning overtime and homeowners by relying on tariff revenue.
The Harris campaign's tax plan would raise tax rates for corporations and high earners, setting the corporate rate at 28%. She has presented her proposals as friendlier to businesses than those that had been put forward by Biden. Although Harris has not spelled out how she would handle the expiration of the Trump tax cuts, her campaign has said people making under $400,000 per year also would not see any tax increases. On trade, Harris has said she would maintain Biden administration tariffs on some Chinese imports but would not expand the use of tariffs.
Both candidates have vowed to protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security but have not released detailed plans about how they would do so.
Immigration
Going back to his first term, Trump has made immigration a top campaign issue, linking many of the nation's economic and social problems — including violent crime and drugs that fuel the opioid epidemic — to an influx of undocumented migrants.
During this year's run, Trump has said he would undertake the largest domestic deportation in U.S. history, potentially relying on the National Guard and local police to supplement work done by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump also seeks to end birthright citizenship, toughen restrictions on asylum and hire 10,000 more border patrol agents with 10% raises for those who do the job.
Harris and other Democrats have blamed Trump for influencing Republican lawmakers to kill an immigration bill in the spring that would have placed new limits on asylum and directed $20 billion in resources to strengthen the southern border.
The Biden administration has claimed successes this year in reducing the number of border crossings. Harris says she would seek to oversee comprehensive immigration reform that offers humane pathways to citizenship for immigrants who don't have legal status — particularly those who arrived in the United States as children.
In years past, Harris indicated that she supports allowing undocumented immigrants to gain access to benefits including government health care, tuition assistance at state universities and driver's licenses. Walz, who passed laws in Minnesota opening up some of these benefits to undocumented immigrants, recently told Fox News that Harris does not plan to expand this type of coverage as president. Federal health care and financial aid programs currently are not open to undocumented immigrants.
Although most of Trump's immigration platform is restrictive, the former president has suggested he would award green cards giving permanent residency to non-citizens who graduate from U.S. colleges and universities. The program would include exceptions for potential national security threats.
During his campaign, Trump frequently tied illegal immigration to the flow of fentanyl into the United States and pressures on housing and job markets in communities with large populations of migrants. Harris has touted her record as a prosecutor with experience targeting transnational drug cases, saying she would increase funding for those efforts as president and remain tough on illegal border crossings.
Abortion and Reproductive Rights
Harris has been among the most vocal Democratic leaders calling for the restoration of federal abortion protections under Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 after nearly 50 years.
Trump, who favors a state-level approach to abortion policies, indicated in his debate with Harris that he would not support a bill for a national abortion ban. Nearly two dozen states, most led by Republicans, have either banned or limited access to abortions since the 2022 ruling. The state-directed policies have kicked off numerous court cases over gestational limits for women seeking the procedure and access to other medical care.
The Harris campaign has said it will preserve access to abortion medication, consistent with a Supreme Court ruling in June, and continue to follow the guidance of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration about the regulation and safety of such drugs.
Trump, whose views on abortion have shifted at various points, has given conflicting statements on whether he would seek to ban the abortion pill. He has said that even in states where abortions are limited, exceptions should remain in cases of rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother.
A Gallup poll in August found that abortion has risen in importance as an issue among American voters. Nearly one-third said they would only vote for a candidate for major office who shares their views on abortion.
The issue has proven politically volatile for Republicans, many of whom are running more staunchly anti-abortion campaigns in races they consider more safe.
How are the candidates polling ahead of the election?
With less than two weeks until the election, national polls show a slight advantage for Harris over Trump, according to the New York Times. Harris is polling at 49% nationally compared with 48% for Trump.
Still, in the closing months of the race, Harris' polling numbers have consistently trailed the leads that Clinton and Biden had over Trump during the same periods in the two most recent presidential elections.
In the seven key swing states, the New York Times poll found Harris holds razor-thin advantages in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin with two weeks left. Trump has a slight edge in North Carolina and two-point leads in Georgia and Arizona.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday found Harris has a three-point advantage nationally over Trump, with 46% of support compared with 43% for the Republican nominee. The survey found that immigration, the economy and threats to democracy were ranked as the top issues for voters heading into the election.