The Candidates
Vice President
Kamala Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris has dedicated her career to fighting injustice, inspired by her early experiences at civil rights marches. From her roles in county courtrooms to the California Attorney General’s office to the U.S. Senate and now the White House, she’s committed to protecting freedoms and expanding opportunities for all Americans. As a senator, she championed legislation to raise wages, improve healthcare, and push for criminal justice reform, while securing major victories as California's attorney general against big banks and predatory institutions.
As vice president, Harris has been a key partner to President Biden, working on crucial issues such as reproductive rights, lowering prescription drug costs, and tackling climate change. The Biden-Harris administration has seen significant accomplishments, including job creation, infrastructure investments, and historic gun safety reforms. Harris, the first woman, first Black American, and first South Asian American vice president, continues to break barriers while advocating for fundamental freedoms both domestically and on the global stage. A proud graduate of Howard University, she values family and her close-knit blended family, affectionately referred to by her children as "Momala."
Former President
Donald Trump
Donald Trump, a figure as polarizing as he is flamboyant, first made waves in the world of real estate, where his knack for self-promotion and controversial business practices garnered both attention and skepticism. Born into wealth, he transformed his inheritence into a brand that became synonymous with luxury and excess, yet his ventures were often marked by a series of financial missteps, including bankruptcies and failed projects. Despite this, he managed to carve out a niche as a celebrity businessman, parlaying his notoriety into a reality television career that further amplified his larger-than-life persona.
His presidency, from 2017 to 2021, was characterized by a mix of bold rhetoric and unconventional governance (plus a lot of golf). With a penchant for social media outbursts and an unpredictable approach to diplomacy, Trump disrupted long-standing political norms, often leaving critics and supporters alike bewildered. His administration was marked by significant legislative battles, controversial policies, and a deeply divided electorate. Whether viewed as a champion of populism or a purveyor of discord, Trump’s legacy remains a subject of intense debate, ensuring his place in history as one of the most unconventional and contentious leaders in recent memory — and the only U.S. President to be convicted of a felony (actually 33 of them, and counting).
Key Issues
January 6 Insurrection
Harris has strongly and repeatedly condemned the attack on the U.S. Capitol. She has noted that the Capitol riot demonstrated the "duality" of democracy, highlighting its strength in adversity and its fragility without active support, while the Biden administration's Justice Department has overseen one of the largest investigations in U.S. history, resulting in hundreds of convictions related to the riot.
Trump has called those who showed up at the Capitol “very special” and described the attack as “the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots.” Trump has promised he’ll pardon at least “a large portion” of the rioters and vowed to “free the Jan. 6 Hostages” as one of his very first acts in office.
2020 Election
As a senator, Harris joined all of her Democratic colleagues in voting to certify the 2020 election results. She remains steadfast that Joe Biden won the election fairly, which has been proven factual.
Trump refused to concede and promoted an array of conspiracy theories about the election. Many Jan. 6 defendants have described themselves as gullible idiots for falling for Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Trump continues to spread lies about the 2020 election.
Harris has taken a prominent role as vice president in advocating for federal programs to expand access to affordable housing and reduce homelessness. She has also spoken out against racial bias in the home appraisal process and promoted a plan to give homeowners more recourse if they feel their home was unfairly appraised. As a senator, Harris introduced legislation to provide tax credits to households whose rent and utilities exceed 30% of their income, and a separate bill to invest more than $100 billion in affordable housing.
Housing
A Trump campaign official said Trump would lower housing costs by encouraging the construction of new housing on the “periphery of cities and suburban areas” where land is cheapest and cancel Biden’s “anti-suburban housing regulation.” During his time as president, Trump initially sought to reduce barriers to building high-density housing. But in 2020, he spoke out against building affordable housing in suburban areas, saying he would prevent a “dystopian vision of building low-income housing units next to your suburban house.”
The Biden White House budgets called for no benefit cuts and would raise taxes on upper earners to fund the long-term shortfall. As the White House put it in its March proposal, “protecting Social Security should start with asking the highest-income Americans to pay their fair share.” The White House has also called for “improving” some Social Security benefits, including supplemental income for seniors and disabled people. It has also called for expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing benefits.
Social Security
Trump’s position is muddled. In March, he said he doesn’t favor any benefit cuts: “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” Days earlier, he was asked about the future of programs like Social Security and said that “there’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” He has not proposed a plan to cover the long-term solvency issues of Social Security.
Harris called for repealing the entire Trump tax cuts as a presidential candidate in 2020. During his tenure, Biden has called for unwinding those tax breaks for Americans making more than $400,000, and raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
Taxes
Trump favors “extending the Trump tax cuts” if he is elected, according to a campaign official. Major portions of that 2017 tax law expire at the end of 2025.
Harris declared education a “fundamental right” in her 2019 campaign kickoff address, adding that “we will guarantee that right with universal pre-K and debt-free college.” As vice president, she’s called for an increase in teacher pay and criticized Florida’s Black history curriculum, and the White House made broad new investments in historically Black colleges and universities.
Education
Trump wants to “get rid” of the Education Department and “let local areas and, frankly, states handle education.” In September 2023, Trump released a 10-point plan that included “restoring parental rights,” proposals relating to students’ gender identity, and allowing for the direct election of principals. Trump also proposed incentivizing schools to eliminate teacher tenure, reinstating a commission focused on teaching U.S. history and allowing for "universal school choice." Trump cheered the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision.
Harris has supported the Biden administration’s moves to provide more than $100 billion in student debt relief, and has specifically argued in favor of student debt relief for public servants. During her 2019 presidential campaign, she said “I do support debt-free college” and backed “income-based repayment” for loans.
Student loan debt
Trump has pushed for cuts to programs that assist with student loan forgiveness but did suspend interest on student loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic. After the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, Trump said at a June 2023 campaign event that Biden’s plan “would have been very unfair to the millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work and diligence.”
Harris has backed the Biden administration’s fundamental approach to the war in the Gaza Strip: push for de-escalation, help broker a cease-fire that includes the return of hostages, and promote a two-state solution. But Harris, who argues for Israel’s right to self-defense and the elimination of Hamas, has also shown signs that she’s more in line with progressives than Biden is. In a March speech, she called the situation in Gaza a “humanitarian catastrophe” and called for an immediate — but temporary — cease-fire.
Israel/Gaza
Trump has pushed for a quick end to the war, telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in April: “They have to get it done. Get it over with and get it over with fast.” He has not said under what conditions Israel should agree to stop its military campaign, but he has also not suggested any support for Palestinians. His criticism of Israel has been limited to its struggles on the public-relations front. He has not articulated his own plan for peace in the Middle East.
Harris has signaled she would continue Biden's strong support for NATO and other international alliances. Biden rallied the military alliance to oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine and views it as one of his chief accomplishments in office. Harris' own foreign policy views have been obscured by Biden's, and she had relatively little experience before joining the administration. But there's no sign Harris would go in a different direction, saying in 2022 that the U.S. has "an unwavering commitment to NATO."
NATO/U.S. alliances
Trump has repeatedly said he believes other NATO countries are essentially mooching off the U.S. by not spending enough of their own money on defense. He has even threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO. Similarly, Trump has a dim view of the United Nations and multilateral treaties like arms control agreements. “The future does not belong to the globalists. The future belongs to patriots,” Trump said at the U.N. General Assembly in 2019, underscoring his commitment to nationalism over internationalism.
Harris has fully backed the Biden administration’s effort to arm Ukraine and to rally European and international support for Kyiv against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Harris has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy six times, including five days before Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s entire territory in February 2022. Harris has endorsed the Biden administration’s view that keeping up military aid to Ukraine will bolster the country’s negotiating position if and when Moscow agrees to hold genuine peace talks. She also has argued that if Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, it could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarian leaders to attack other countries.
Ukraine
Trump has said that if elected, he’d stop the war between Ukraine and Russia within 24 hours — without offering many details about how he’d do so. In September, he said he did not want to reveal his plan in order to preserve his “bargaining chips.” Throughout his presidency, Trump sought to remain on good terms with Putin. On the eve of Russia’s invasion, Trump described Putin’s recognition of two breakaway Ukrainian territories as “very savvy” and “genius.” Earlier this year, Trump embraced the idea of giving additional aid to Ukraine in the form of a “loan” rather than a “gift.”
Harris has proven herself comfortable talking about Trump’s role in the Dobbs ruling and the impact new state laws have had on women. Before her elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket, Harris echoed Biden in calling for Congress to pass legislation restoring the national standard that existed under Roe v. Wade. In March, when asked by a reporter about how best to replace the “imperfect vessel” of Roe, Harris responded, “What we want is to put back in place the protections that the Supreme Court took away, which is to codify, put into law the protections of Roe v. Wade. That’s what we want.”
Abortion
Trump proudly takes credit for overturning Roe v. Wade after appointing three conservative justices who voted with the majority. After flirting with the idea of endorsing a national abortion ban, Trump announced he supported states’ rights on abortion procedures and that he would not sign a federal ban. As president, he supported a 20-week federal ban. Trump says he supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life and health of a woman and has said Republicans who don’t do that are risking their political future. He opposes taxpayer funding for abortions.
Trump has called for changes but hasn’t offered a plan. As president, Trump fought to eliminate the ACA, including its regulations on insurers and its subsidies for coverage. He succeeded at zeroing out the individual mandate penalty for not carrying insurance. He used executive action to loosen some ACA regulations and endorsed litigation to wipe out the law. In November 2023, he revived calls for replacing the ACA, criticizing Republicans who didn’t want to “terminate” it and vowing not to “give up.” More recently, he has softened his rhetoric and said he simply wants to improve the ACA, not terminate it. But his campaign hasn’t said how.
In her July 25 campaign launch video, Harris said she'd fight for a future "where we can all afford health care." As senator and vice president, she has sought to preserve the Affordable Care Act and battle GOP attempts to repeal it. A portion of expanded ACA subsidies signed by Biden is set to expire after 2025; the Biden White House has called for extending them. Harris has taken aggressive positions on health care in the past, signing on to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act in 2019, as a presidential candidate, before proposing her own version with a larger role for private insurance.
Affordable Care Act
Harris backed the progressive Green New Deal climate change mitigation framework during her 2019 presidential bid, and she supported banning fracking and offshore drilling and treating big businesses that pollute like tobacco companies — i.e., suing them because “they are causing harm and death in communities.” She also supported the return to the global climate pact known as the Paris Agreement, which the Biden administration rejoined on the first day in office. As vice president, she supported the administration’s signature domestic policy legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which included significant clean energy spending and tax credits for electric vehicles. And she spoke forcefully about the administration’s climate investments during a global climate summit last year.
Climate change
Trump wants to cut regulations and withdraw from the major international climate treaty. He withdrew from the Paris Agreement in the early months of his administration, and as president, he relaxed a slew of environmental regulations, including emission and pollution rules for coal-fired power plants, arguing the rules were stifling job creation. If elected, Trump has promised to “drill, baby, drill” for fossil fuels, “remove all red tape” around oil and natural gas projects, withdraw from the Paris accord again, and “oppose all of the radical left’s Green New Deal policies that are designed to shut down the development of America’s abundant energy resources.”
Harris was tapped by Biden in July 2021 to examine the “root causes” of Central American migration to the U.S. She said she opposes family separation and favors allowing undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card. The Biden White House backed a bipartisan bill by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., that would raise the bar for asylum-seekers to enter the country and to be approved, as well as give the president more power to turn away new arrivals if migration levels hit certain triggers. Harris voted against Trump’s border wall as a senator.
Immigration
Trump promises a crackdown on migration. His campaign website says: “President Trump will shut down Biden’s border disaster. He will again end catch-and-release, restore Remain in Mexico, and eliminate asylum fraud. In cooperative states, President Trump will deputize the National Guard and local law enforcement to assist with rapidly removing illegal alien gang members and criminals.”
Harris has long supported transgender rights and earned praise from LGBTQ advocates going back decades, to when she was district attorney in San Francisco, where she prosecuted violence against LGBTQ people as hate crimes and advocated to change a California legal precedent seen as bigoted. More recently, the Biden administration expanded Title IX protections to include trans people, though it punted on addressing the hot-button question of trans athletes in college sports. "We celebrate transgender and nonbinary Americans," Harris said on Transgender Visibility Day in March. "We see you. We stand with you. We won’t stop fighting for you."
Transgender rights
Trump is opposed to expanding transgender rights. Trump has said Biden’s Title IX expansion is “insane” and going to “destroy women’s sports.” He has vowed to use federal power to try to: stop gender-affirming care for minors, which he equates with “child abuse”; impose “severe consequences” for teachers who discuss transitioning with students; and discourage the promotion of gender transitioning for Americans of any age. During his previous term, Trump’s administration considered officially defining gender as an immutable biological condition determined at birth, which would make it impossible for people to change gender in the eyes of the law.
Information compiled from NBC News
Other Issues
Dictators
Harris is not a fan of dictators or dictatorships.
Trump has vowed that he would only be a dictator on “day one” if re-elected. He has since tried to play off the comment as a joke, which would be more plausible if he doesn’t have an extensive history of cozying up to dictators. Trump has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Trump also repeatedly uses phrases that echo the language of Hitler and Mussolini.
Putin
In a new book from investigative journalist Bob Woodward, an unnamed aide claims that Trump had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin as many as seven times since leaving office in 2021, even as Trump was pressuring Republicans to block military aid to Ukraine to fight Russian invaders. The book also said that Trump, while still in office in 2020, sent Covid-19 testing equipment to Mr. Putin early in the pandemic for his personal use — even as Americans were struggling to get the tests themselves. Putin, according to Woodward’s account, specifically directed Trump to keep this secret.
Harris has responded to this claim, saying: “Donald Trump has put Putin over the American people time and time again…. Do you remember what those days were like? You remember how many people did not have tests and were trying to scramble to get them?… And this man is giving COVID test kits to Vladimir Putin? Think about what this means on top of him sending love letters to Kim Jong Un. … He thinks, well, that’s his friend. What about the American people? They should be your first friend.”
The Purge
Harris understands that The Purge was a movie that is not to be replicated. Instead, she has real policy ideas to combat crime. Last year, we saw the largest ever one-year decrease in the homicide rate, which now stands 16 percent below its 2020 level. Violent crime is at a near 50-year low.
Trump recently called for “one real rough, nasty” and “violent day” in order to eradicate crime “immediately.” Trump has a long history of endorsing police violence, having said that police reaction to the racial unrest in response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020 “was a beautiful thing to watch.”
Hannibal Lecter
Harris understands that Hannibal Lecter is fictional and does not support serial killers or cannibals.
Trump has repeatedly referred to Hannibal Lecter – the cannibalistic serial killer from the 1991 film Silence of the Lambs – as “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” and praised him. Again, Hannibal Lecter is a fictional movie character who killed and ate people. He is neither late, nor great.
Politicizing Disasters
Kamala Harris pledged ongoing federal support and praised the “heroes among us” as she visited North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, her second trip in four days to the disaster zone. Harris helped pack toiletries into aid kits at a distribution center and promised federal assistance would continue to flow. The administration’s efforts so far include covering costs for all of the rescue and recovery efforts across the Southeast for several months. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, both Republicans, have praised the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) also applauded the administration’s response.
Trump was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states. Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, said that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings. But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa. Olivia Troye, a former Trump White House homeland security adviser, backed up Harvey’s claim.
Troye said local political leaders regularly called her office begging for help because Trump refused to sign documents approving aid. Troye said she had to repeatedly enlist former Vice President Mike Pence to apply pressure.
Added Harvey: “There’s no empathy for the survivors. It is all about getting your photo-op, right? Disaster theater to make him look good.”
Personal Tax Returns
Harris has released 20 years of personal tax returns, stretching back to the earliest days of her political career. Harris’s returns are the personal demonstration of her public commitment to tax transparency. Harris’s adjusted gross income during this period ranged from a high of $262,877 in 2010 before dropping to a low of $128,668 in 2013. During several of these premarriage years, she found herself paying the alternative minimum tax. In general, Harris’s effective tax rate ranged from a low of 16.6% in 2004 to a high of 24.3% in 2010. During most years in this period, Harris’s returns show itemized deductions for taxes paid, mortgage interest, and charitable contributions.
In addition, Harris has supported legislation to make tax disclosure mandatory for presidents and vice presidents, as well as major-party candidates for both offices. She cosponsored the For the People Act of 2019, a later version of which passed the House in 2021. Both measures would have required candidates and officeholders to disclose personal tax returns.
Trump famously resisted personal tax disclosure as both a candidate and a sitting president, despite modern precedent that every other presidential candidate has adhered to. In 2022, a House committee made public six years of Trump's tax returns, which showed he paid relatively little in federal taxes in the years before and during his presidency. The returns show that in the 2020 tax year, Donald and Melania Trump reported $78 million in gross income from 16 foreign countries — including the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and St. Martin, where Trump has properties. In 2017, Trump's first year in office, he also made $6.5 million from China, the returns show. In all, the Trumps reported millions in foreign income and business expenses from businesses in at least 22 countries over the six-year period, the returns show, including at various points money from South Korea, Azerbaijan, Turkey, the Philippines and Brazil.
The couple paid little in federal taxes during Trump's presidency and appeared to owe none in 2020 after reporting large deductions and expenses that resulted in a net loss of $15 million. Trump then claimed a $5 million refund, according to the return. Trump reported millions in negative income in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020, and he paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. The returns also show Trump had numerous foreign bank accounts between 2015 and 2016, including in China, the U.K., St. Martin and Ireland, which is a well-known tax haven.
Republicans who have endorsed Harris
Former Rep. Liz Cheney - “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. And because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris."
Former Vice President Dick Cheney - “In our nation's 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump".”
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger - “Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party. His fundamental weakness has coursed through my party like an illness."
Former Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham - “I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote."
Former Mike Pence Advisor Olivia Troye - “I left the Trump White House in August 2020 because I saw the danger Donald Trump posed for our country. The good news is, we have another option in this election: someone who values democracy, will uphold the rule of law, and who is prepared to stand with our allies and provide steady leadership to the world.”
Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci - “Kamala Harris is capable and has a great team.”
Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan - “To my fellow Republicans at home that want to pivot back toward policy, empathy and tone: You know the right thing to do. Now let's have the courage to do it in November.”
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - “I can't sit quietly as Donald Trump — perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation — eyes a return to the White House.”
Former CIA and FBI Director William Webster - “We expect to disagree with Kamala Harris on many domestic and foreign policy issues, but we believe that she possesses the essential qualities to serve as President and Donald Trump does not.”
Former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte - “In matters of national security, [Trump’s] demeanor invites equally erratic behavior from our adversaries, which irresponsibly threatens reckless and dangerous global consequences.”
Former Sen. Jeff Flake - “I want to support a presidential candidate who seeks to unite our country rather than one who divides us,”
Democrats who have endorsed Trump
Does RFK Jr. count? No? Then none.