Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris outlined her economic vision of bolstering the U.S.’s middle class in a speech Wednesday at Carnegie Mellon University.
In Harris’s speech at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, she stressed having a “pragmatic” philosophy would elevate her “opportunity economy” approach, where everyone – no matter if they live in a rural area, small town or big city – would have the same chance in succeeding.
“I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said in her speech, which prompted a roar of applause from the audience.
Harris spoke to an exclusive crowd of people and press, who could only attend via an emailed invite, for 40 minutes starting around 3 p.m. Invited members quickly started forming a line around noon outside the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art.
However, not everyone invited was able to sit in on Harris’s speech; the 29,000-square-foot building reached capacity around 1:30 p.m. Volunteers consistently informed the guests waiting in line that the building was at full capacity, but the building’s limited space did not deter most people from continuing to linger in line.
John Huot, chairperson for the Jefferson County Democratic Committee, outwardly expressed his annoyance of not being able to listen to Harris’s speech because he paid $17 for parking. Jefferson County is about an hour and a half away from Alleghany County, which is the county for downtown Pittsburgh.
Despite the wasted parking money, John Huot and his wife Janet Huot said they didn’t mind waiting in the area in hopes they could get into the building.
During the Primary Election, Jefferson County consisted of over 18,000 registered Republicans compared to slightly less than 6,000 registered Democrats. John and Janet Huot said they are constantly fighting against a large majority in their community for issues such as reproductive rights and immigration.
John Huot said he supports Harris because of her positions on equality, which he said contrasts sharply with her opponents.
“Kamala Harris believes that equality is for everybody, no matter of your sex, your race, your religion, and there are forces out there who are trying unfortunately (to) interject those three things into what they think their freedoms are,” John Huot said.
In an interview Monday with Wisconsin Public Radio, Harris said regarding abortion, the Senate should eliminate the filibuster rule – a senator or group of senators’ right to unlimited debate – that requires a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to pass. She said she wants to get the government to the point that it would only require 51 votes to put the protections of reproductive freedom back in law.
Harris has said she would never allow a national abortion ban to become law, and she will sign a bill to restore nationwide reproductive freedom when Congress passes it.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke at Indiana University of Pennsylvania Monday and said he would protect women and be women’s protector as president. He said abortion legislation will continue to be up to the states, which he claims are the vote of the people.
“Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free,” Trump said at the rally. “You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”
After both presidential nominees visited Pennsylvania, a swing state, earlier in the week, Harris is currently winning the state at 49% compared to Trump’s 47%. The speech marks Harris’s fourth visit to the Pittsburgh area.
Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes of the 24th District of Pennsylvania said Harris is focused on improving families, workers, housing, discrimination, barriers and making billionaires pay more.
“That's who I want working and fighting for me, someone who's dedicated to the people. Like she said … ‘I'm Kamala Harris for the people,’ and I believe that in every step of the way she has demonstrated that she is for the people,” Mayes said.
She said she’s confident that Harris will continue to fight to ensure student debt is eliminated and reduced for generations of people.
Harris has spoken about the Biden administration’s student-loan forgiveness plan, and she has previously pledged she and Biden would offer more to public servants, such as teachers, to relieve the burden of student-loan debt, but she has yet to expand on what her revised policies would be if elected.
Mayes said she believes Harris would create an economy specific to each person. Whether it’s college, starting a business, doing a trade or starting a trade, Mayes said those options weren’t as easily accessible for her generation.
In a sit-down interview with CNN last month, Harris explicitly said she does not support banning fracking if elected as president. However, in 2019, when she was campaigning for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential primary, she said she was in favor of banning fracking.
Mayes said Harris’s switch in stance for fracking is definitely questionable, but is still confident in Harris’s policies.
“Overall, do I think I want to put the environment in her hands versus the hands of Donald Trump? 100%,” she said.
Two business students received invitations to Harris’s speech late Tuesday night from a fellow student who is part of Carnegie Mellon Democrats. Both students said they favored Harris but only because she was the “lesser of two evils.”
The students said they were most disappointed with Harris’s neutral stance on Palestine, but they said they think that’s a better stance than Trump’s, who has expressed full support for Israel's military.
Harris has previously met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said she was committed to Israel, but also won’t be silent about humanitarian efforts in Gaza, according to NPR.
The President of College Republicans at Carnegie Mellon Anthony Cacciato stood silently outside the Institute building with a pro-Trump sign. He criticized the specific people who were invited in the audience. Cacciato said Harris needs to be better about engaging with young voters because those voters are supposedly making up a large portion of her voters.
“If there's anything I have to say to the Vice President, (it's) to engage with your constituency, engage with the people you're supposed to represent and engage with the problems that they're facing and the needs that they have,” he said.
A small protest of about 15 people in support of Palestine broke out outside of the art building around 3 p.m. The group of people weren’t a part of any group or organization. One of the protestors, Ilyas Khan, a junior linguistics major at Carnegie Mellon, said it’s important to demonstrate how high-profile people come to campus to voice their political opinions while students’ political opinions are silenced.
Last month, Carnegie Mellon students were informed of a revised free speech policy, which indicated that any protest, rally or expressive event with 25 or more participants must be registered in advance or officials may disband or prevent the gathering. Compliances such as noise are also subject to being shut down, which is what happened during the pro-Palestine protest.
Khan said as a registered Democrat and an advocate for voter rights and activism they are disappointed with how Harris has continued to handle the war on Gaza. Khan said unless Harris makes a drastic difference in her stance on the issue then they will be voting Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein.
“If you want my vote, then you have to earn it because I'm tired of being the sacrificial minority,” Khan said. “I’m tired of letting people use my story, as a child of immigrants, as a person of color, to amplify their campaign viability. It's not going to happen for us anymore.”
Quadirah Taylor, the chief executive officer of the Legislative Organization Valuing Everyone, said the 2024 election is much more than just expressing the right to vote; it’s about the threat to people's democracy. She said everything about the upcoming election has a ripple effect.
“How could you not be involved?“ Taylor asked. “How could you not understand what’s at stake? This is not like any other election because our democracy has never been threatened as much as it is now.”
