On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, VP Kamala Harris announced a $50,000 tax deduction for new small businesses in New Hampshire to improve her economic credentials.

If she wins the presidency in November, Harris intends to announce in New Hampshire, outlining a proposal for 25 million new small business applications over her first four years in office. Under current tax rules, small businesses can claim up to $5,000 for expenses related to their first year of operations.

Harris flagged the plans at a campaign stop in Savannah, Georgia, last week, saying that growing small businesses was one of her “singular priorities.” “Half of America’s working population either owns, runs, or works in a small business,” she said.

Since entering the race in July, Harris has eked out only a modest lead against former President Donald Trump in most polls. However, she is often rated as less competent to handle the economy than her Republican rival.

Harris was well positioned to win the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden announced in July that he would not reseek the White House; Like Trump, she has also drawn criticism for putting out very few policy proposals and refusing to take questions from media sources. Harris’s latest policy announcement comes as she prepares to debate Trump in their first presidential debate on Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pa.

Since she joined the race, Harris has positioned her economic agenda as being more beneficial to middle-class citizens of the country than Trump’s proposals, including gargantuan tax measures, such as reducing the corporate income tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent.

In a first wave of economic policy proposals last month, Harris outlined plans forging an “opportunity economy,” including a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers, a $6,000 child tax benefit for newborns, and a federal ban on price gouging for groceries. In her first suite of economic policy announcements last month, Harris called for a subsidy of $25,000 for first-time homebuyers, a $6,000 child tax benefit for newborns, and a federal ban on the price gouging of groceries.