5 Ways Kamala Is Running to the Right of Biden

Kamala Harris’ campaign messaging bears little resemblance to that of President Biden in 2020. (Semafor)

Immigration enforcement: Biden campaigned on stopping construction of Donald Trump’s border wall and loosening immigration restrictions, saying he wanted to restore the United States’ “historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum-seekers.”

• Harris has reinvented herself as a “border-state prosecutor” and launched ads claiming she backed the “toughest border control bill in decades.”

Electric vehicle mandates: While Biden has pushed for requiring automakers to sell more hybrids and EVs, Harris told Michigan voters earlier this month, “Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.”

LGBT rights: While Biden was outspoken in his support for the transgender community during the 2020 campaign, Harris has been more muted, declining to affirm her commitment to taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries in a recent Fox News interview.

• In 2020, Virginia Democrat Danica Roem made history as the first openly transgender elected official to speak at a national convention - trans speakers and issues were conspicuously absent from this year’s Democratic National Convention.

• How Nico Lang, a reporter for the queer news website Them, summed up Harris’ 2024 campaign: “Since accepting the nomination, however, Harris has not spoken at length about LGBTQ+ issues on the campaign trail. While she may still hold many of these same points of view, they are not part of her campaign platform this time around, and her 2020 campaign page is no longer active.”

Crime: Biden, campaigning on the heels of the George Floyd protest movement, pushed for radical criminal justice reforms, including Justice Department investigations into police and prosecutors, marijuana decriminalization and ending mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes.

• Like with immigration, Harris has played up her former career as a San Francisco district attorney.

• Harris-Walz campaign spokesman James Singer in a statement to CNN: “Throughout her entire career, Kamala Harris has fought to protect people and hold bad actors accountable. She took on predators, rapists, abusers, fraudsters, and gangs to get justice for the people and she will continue to fight for justice and freedom as President of the United States.”

Health care: Harris has dropped the idea of expanding Medicare to younger people and the "public option" that Biden once campaigned on.

National Review senior writer Noah Rothman: