The third candidate in this election is the economy
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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are at the top of Tuesday’s ballot. The third major player in this election is the economy, which has shaped both campaigns’ narratives and kept the race on a razor’s edge.
But how the economy might influence the results is less than straightforward. On the one hand, it has been growing steadily, generating millions of new jobs and pushing wages higher. On the other, prices are sharply higher than when President Biden took office and housing is less affordable, and those factors are weighing on Americans’ moods.
Harris hasn’t put as much emphasis on the jobs and growth figures as Biden did, instead focusing her message on what she calls an “opportunity economy." Trump has said he would push through an array of tax cuts and tariffs, while painting a darker picture of the economy. Over the weekend he warned that a Harris win would lead to “a 1929-style economic depression." Americans have given the economy low marks during the Biden administration, driven by frustration over prices. Here, too, however, a sharp partisan divide comes into play.
Consumer surveys from the University of Michigan show Republicans rate the economy as worse than even when the pandemic hit in the last year of Trump’s presidency. Democrats rate it as better than they ever did during Trump’s time in office. Despite such downbeat assessments, what people have been doing with their wallets tells a different story.
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