Harris’s Economic Pitch: Capitalism for the Middle Class

In a major address in Pittsburgh, the vice president praised business and used technical language to court economy-minded voters skeptical of big government.

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Vice President Kamala Harris delivered remarks on the economy in Pittsburgh.

Vice President Kamala Harris wants voters to know that she is not a socialist.

That was the clear, unspoken theme of Ms. Harris’s nearly 40-minute economic policy speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. It was why she paraphrased Warren Buffett, cited a survey of top economists and praised entrepreneurs in language that echoed Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s presidential run a dozen years earlier.

Ms. Harris is locked in a tight presidential race with former President Donald J. Trump. Polls show that the economy remains the biggest issue in the race and that many undecided voters have concerns about Ms. Harris’s ability to make things better. Mr. Trump has tried to deride Ms. Harris as a socialist, if not a communist. Polls suggest those attacks have raised doubts in some swing voters’ minds about how Ms. Harris would wield government power to manage the economy.

And so, in what was billed as a major economic address with only weeks to go in the campaign, Ms. Harris sought to put those doubts to rest. In muted and technical language that seemed designed to court on-the-fence voters skeptical of the government’s ability to solve major economic problems, Ms. Harris embraced capitalism and called herself a pragmatist who would not govern by ideology.

In front of an audience filled with business owners and entrepreneurs at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, Ms. Harris promised to build an economy that gains strength from a growing middle class, grounded in “fairness, dignity and opportunity.”

“I promise you I will be pragmatic in my approach,” she said. “I will engage in what Franklin Roosevelt called bold, persistent experimentation. Because I believe we shouldn’t be constrained by ideology, and instead should seek practical solutions to problems, realistic assessments of what is working and what is not, applying metrics to our analysis, applying facts to our analysis and stay focused, then, not only on the crises at hand but on our big goals, on what’s best for America over the long term.”

A moment later, she added: “Look, I am a capitalist.”

Ms. Harris could have chosen a different path — one that many progressives have urged her to take. She could have more clearly delineated who she sees as the villains of the economy — namely big corporations.

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