Doug Emhoff Pitches Harris’ Economic Vision as ‘Pro-Capitalism’ and ‘Helps Everyone’

Vice President Kamala Harris is a pro-growth capitalist who wants a “forward-looking economy that helps everyone,” her husband Doug Emhoff told donors, in what were some of the most revealing comments yet from the Democratic nominee’s allies about her economic vision.

The Second Gentleman, speaking at a Sag Harbor, New York, fundraiser on Monday evening, pointed to his own career as a business and media lawyer, and said Harris “understood exactly what I was doing with these clients.”

“She totally gets it,” Emhoff told the donors as the vice president continues to stake out an economic pitch to voters in her race against Donald Trump. “Her vision is pro-capitalism, pro-innovation, pro-growth, you know, lots of employment, lots of housing. It’s just forward looking.”

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He said Harris would not sit idly “if you cheat, if you take advantage of folks,” referring to her experience as a prosecutor. “There’s got to be consequence for that, because it’s got to be fair, and that’s how she’s going to come at this.”

Emhoff spoke at the home of former hedge fund manager Richard Perry and his wife, designer Lisa Perry, who said the event raised $1.5 million for Harris’ election effort. Former President Bill Clinton also spoke.

Emhoff’s depiction of Harris’ economic worldview comes as Trump labels Harris a communist, branding her with the nickname “Comrade Kamala.” The vice president, since replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket last month, is seeking to chart her own economic course and separate herself from the dissatisfaction with inflation and the economy that has persisted during Biden’s tenure.

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Those gathered at the fundraiser included former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, Advent Capital Management LLC’s Tracy Maitland, Dune Real Estate Partners chief executive officer Dan Neidich, Lazard Inc. president Ray McGuire and Tom Freston, a former CEO of Viacom Inc. Two grandchildren of philanthropist Laurie Tisch held boxes of Hershey Kisses with the presidential seal that Emhoff gave them as a gift from Biden.

Harris unveiled a plank of her economic platform earlier this month in a speech in North Carolina, calling for an “opportunity economy,” the first major policy roll-out of her campaign. 

She has proposed an expanded child tax credit, particularly for families with newborns, as well as housing measures to both drive more housing supply and offer $25,000 in subsidies to first-time buyers. She also said she’d push to extend caps on drug costs. All echo or expand on priorities of the Biden-Harris administration.

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Still, she has faced criticism for lacking the specificity of many presidential campaigns. However, that has given the business community hope she might be a more friendly to corporations than Biden.

Harris, however, is drawing heavily from policies embraced by the President, including a call to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. She is largely abandoning some of the more liberal policies she proposed in the 2020 Democratic presidential contest, such as banning hydraulic fracturing or moving away from employer-sponsored health care.

Her campaign has also touted her record as California attorney general in campaign ads, including her involvement in a landmark 2012 case that targeted banks for predatory foreclosure practices in the aftermath of the financial crisis.