What are Kamala Harris’s views on issues like the economy?

Days before the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris is riding high with favorable polling and spirited rallies. But beyond the good vibes, where does the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee stand on key issues?

While she has yet to release a comprehensive platform, her time as a California senator and prosecutor, her 2020 presidential bid and her role in the White House as vice president have revealed where Harris stands on a number of policies.

Over the years, some of her views have changed and some have suggested that she has struggled to define herself.

To better understand her current policy agenda, BBC News looked at Ms Harris’s recent speeches and public statements as a 2024 candidate, her record as vice president and her political history as a 2020 presidential candidate, California senator and prosecutor.

Ms Harris’s campaign told the BBC that the candidate’s most recent statements best reflected her intentions if elected president.

“Vice President Harris will build on the historic Biden-Harris Administration agenda that has defeated Big Pharma, created nearly 16 million jobs, and enacted the first bipartisan gun safety legislation in three decades,” Harris campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement.

Here are Ms. Harris’s views on 10 key issues.

As a senator, Harris has supported a number of progressive policies, including paid family leave, affordable housing and free tuition for low- and middle-income families.

As vice president, she was Mr Biden’s partner in passing key economic legislation – often referred to as “Bidenomics” – including major investments in infrastructure and green energy.

But with inflation and high interest rates continuing to put a strain on Americans’ wallets, polls show the economy remains a top concern for many voters.

On Friday, Harris unveils her economic planincluding mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers, tax credits for parents of newborns and a ban on price increases at grocery stores to help control inflation.

And like her opponent, former US President Donald Trump, she has spoken out against taxing tips.

“As president, I will be laser-focused on creating opportunities for the middle class, promoting their economic security, stability, and dignity. Together, we will build what I call an opportunity economy,” she said Friday.

Harris’s views on the border have evolved since she first ran for office. In 2020, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, she took a fairly progressive stance — promising to close immigration detention centers, for example.

In 2021, Mr. Biden asked Ms. Harris to oversee diplomatic efforts to address immigration issues at the southern border of the United States.

She is not a “border boss” as many Republicans describe her, but instead works with Central American countries to find the “root causes” of people fleeing to the United States.

As part of that effort, in 2023 she announced that she had helped raise about $3 billion — mostly from private companies — to invest in communities in the region, hoping to provide opportunities that would make immigration to the United States less attractive.

Earlier this year, she helped push through a tough bipartisan border security deal that included hundreds of millions of dollars for border wall construction.

But Trump helped kill the deal.accused Biden’s border policies of causing “death, destruction and chaos in every American community.”

Her campaign said that if elected president, she remains committed to “bipartisan solutions to strengthen border security.”

Ms. Harris has long supported women’s abortion rights.

She played a key role in the Biden campaign’s effort to make abortion rights a focus in the 2024 election, and she has long supported legislation protecting reproductive rights nationwide.

That position remains unchanged.

“When Congress passes legislation to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the United States, I will sign it into law,” she said at a 2024 campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia.

She was the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic and traveled across the country after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 to talk about the growing number of abortion bans in the US — often framing the issue as a matter of personal liberty.

Powerful reproductive rights groups, like Emilys List and Reproductive Freedom for All, have formally endorsed Ms. Harris since she began her presidential bid.

While much of her early career was focused on the state of California, since coming to Washington as a senator in 2017, Ms. Harris has become more involved in the international arena.

As a senator, she traveled to Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan and Israel.

As vice president, she met 150 world leaders and visited 21 countries.

She attended the Munich Security Conference last year, where she spoke in support of NATO, denouncing isolationism and vowing to support Ukraine “for as long as necessary.” She also represented the United States in June at a “peace conference” convened by Ukraine in Switzerland, where she reaffirmed U.S. support for Kyiv.

Within 48 hours of her candidacy being made public, 350 leading US foreign policy and national security experts – mostly Democrats – published a letter endorsing her as “the most qualified person” to lead the country on international affairs.

Ms. Harris has long been a supporter of the two-state solution.

As vice president, she was more open in criticizing Israel during the Israel-Gaza war than Mr. Biden.

She was among the first members of the administration to call for an “immediate ceasefire”, raising concerns about the “humanitarian catastrophe for Palestinians” and demanding that Israel end the conflict.

She had what she called “frank and constructive” talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Washington in July.

As the Democratic nominee, she said she told Mr Netanyahu she was “very concerned” about the casualties in Gaza and that it was important for Israel to defend itself.

“It’s time for this war to end,” she said after live talks at the White House.

However, she does not support an arms embargo on Israel, as some leftists in the United States have called for.

Her national security adviser, Phil Gordon, told X that she “has been clear: she will always ensure Israel can defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups.”

In 2017, as a senator, Harris supported a number of progressive tax programs, co-sponsoring a bill with Bernie Sanders to expand Social Security for seniors by raising investment tax rates.

As a 2019 presidential candidate, she supported a corporate tax rate of 35%, up from 21%.

The proposal is stronger than President Biden’s proposal, which she also supports, to raise taxes to 28%.

A campaign official told the BBC that the vice-president would continue to support President Biden’s proposal to not raise taxes on low- and middle-income Americans earning less than $400,000 (£310,000).

As California attorney general, Ms. Harris and her office often used antitrust laws to prevent insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies from raising costs for customers.

As a U.S. senator and then a 2020 presidential candidate, she took a more progressive stance than Mr. Biden, supporting expansion of Medicare and state-funded health care programs.

Her campaign told the BBC that, as president, she would not push for a single-payment system.

While she was vice president, the White House reduced prescription drug costs, capping the price of insulin at $35, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and capping individual costs for Medicare drug coverage.

Ms. Harris began her legal career prosecuting child predators and sex traffickers before being elected San Francisco district attorney and then California attorney general.

Her office has increased conviction rates, especially for violent crimes, though that history has led to criticism from the progressive left, who sometimes call her a “cop.”

Meanwhile, the right has accused her of being soft on crime, although her record suggests otherwise. As a prosecutor, she refused to seek the death penalty for someone who killed a police officer, but as California’s attorney general, she fought for the state’s right to continue using the death penalty.

Ms Harris also used her past as a prosecutor to draw a sharp contrast with her opponent, who was convicted of 34 counts in a gagging scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election.

“Kamala Harris is a pragmatic prosecutor who has successfully taken on predators, con men, and crooks like Donald Trump,” said her campaign spokesman James Singer.

Ms. Harris has long supported tough legislation to protect the environment.

As a prosecutor, Harris defended California’s climate laws and sued oil companies for environmental damage. She also called for climate change policies through a “Green New Deal” during her 2020 presidential campaign — some of which have come to fruition under the current administration.

During CNN’s debate on the 2019 presidential election, she said that “there’s no question I support banning shale gas drilling,” but she has reversed her stance since entering the 2024 presidential race.

As vice president, she helped pass the Deflationary Reduction Act, which funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into renewable energy and electric vehicle tax credits and rebates.

Last year, in a speech, she noted that it was “the largest investment in climate in our nation’s history” and stressed the need to protect against extreme weather.

Ms. Harris has a history of supporting gun safety regulations throughout her political career, and she successfully defended California’s gun laws when they faced legal challenges as the state’s attorney general.

As vice president, she oversaw the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention and earlier this year announced the creation of resource centers to support the implementation of warning laws — aimed at preventing people who could harm themselves and others from obtaining guns.

She also encouraged states to tap into $750 million in federal funds the Biden-Harris administration has set aside for crisis intervention programs.