By Hailey Cohen and Arden Ryan
Vice President Kamala Harris outlined the three pillars of her plan for an “opportunity economy” during a speech at Carnegie Mellon on Sept. 25. Arden Ryan/ News Editor
On her 13th visit to the Keystone State since becoming the Democratic nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris made a trip to Carnegie Mellon. Harris gave a speech outlining her economic plans during a campaign event in the Purnell Center for the Arts on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
About 500 people filed into the Philip Chosky Theater that day, abuzz with excitement for the speaker. The theater was filled to capacity and more, with the box seats used as standing room and people lined up against the walls. This setting was much more intimate than other Harris events, a contrast from her large, arena-sized rallies.
The event was hosted by the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, a non-profit and non-partisan organization for discussion on how economics interacts with social and political issues. Risa Kumazawa, the president of the club, spoke at Wednesday’s event about bridging the gap between business, government, and the local community.
Andrea Stanford introduced Vice President Harris. Stanford is the regional manager of the Pittsburgh branch of the Bank of New York Mellon. She discussed the importance of jump starting small businesses and the culture of innovation in Pittsburgh.
Harris entered the stage to raucous applause. She began her speech by mentioning the improvements that the Biden administration has brought to the Pittsburgh region through new manufacturing jobs. Then, Harris highlighted the positive trends that have occurred in the country in the last four years such as declining unemployment, more manufacturing jobs, and a lower inflation rate.
“For all these positive steps, the cost of living in America is still just too high,” Harris followed. She described her experience growing up in a middle class family and the struggle of making ends meet. She also said that as more people are losing access to buying a home or getting a good industry job, corporations and upper class people are only getting wealthier.
“Over the past several decades, our economy has grown better and better for those at the very top and increasingly difficult for those trying to attain, build, and hold on to a middle class life,” Harris said. “In many ways, this is what this election is all about. The American people face a choice between two fundamental, very different paths for our economy. I intend to chart a new way forward and grow America’s middle class. Donald Trump intends to take America backward to the failed policies of the past.”
Local supporters of Harris’ campaign packed into Purnell’s Chosky Theater to hear her economic plans. Arden Ryan/ News Editor
Harris’s path, as she stated, is called the opportunity economy. This is a vision for an economy where Americans are “able to not just get by but be able to get ahead.” First, everyone needs a stable job, but then Harris said that Americans should also be able to dream and aspire to do more than just work. A key part of this is building intergenerational wealth and empowering middle class families to thrive.
“The American economy is the most powerful force for innovation and wealth creation in human history,” Harris said, positioning the economy as a tool for national greatness.
The opportunity economy outlined by Harris has three pillars. The first is lowering costs for middle class Americans and families. Harris focused on the expenses that many in the middle class are finding difficult to cover including buying a home, childcare and elder care costs, and paying for prescription medications. “If we want the middle class to be the growth engine of our economy, we need to restore basic economic security for middle-class families,” she said.
The second pillar of Harris’s opportunity economy is investing in American entrepreneurship innovation, including helping small businesses. She explained, “When I look at small-business owners, I see some of the heroes of our economy — not only entrepreneurs but, as I said, civic leaders, community leaders, part of the glue that holds communities together.”
“From our earliest days, America’s economic strength has been tied to our industrial strength, and the same is true today.” This led Harris to her third pillar: leading America in the industries of the future such as AI, biomanufacturing, aerospace, and clean energy innovation. Investing in these, she said, will bring new, good manufacturing jobs back to America.
Throughout her speech, Harris focused on describing herself as the commonsense candidate. She said that her plans were practical, realistic, grounded, and not constrained by ideology. She also cited economic studies and said that if she is elected, she will assess her policy decisions to see what is working and what is not using science and data.
During her 39-minute speech, Harris tried to set herself up as the opposite of former president Trump, who she has labeled as “weird,” irrational, and backward over the course of her campaign. She also worked to counter Trump’s claims about her, stating “I am a capitalist,” and putting her faith in the free market and innovation in the American economy.
Harris tied Pittsburgh into her vision for the future of industry in America. Pittsburgh is “the city that helped build the middle class, birth America’s labor movement, empower the rise of American manufacturing,” Harris said. She also made mention of Carnegie Mellon, praising the Robotics Institute, AI research, and the machine learning innovation pioneered by Allen Newell and Herbert Simon. Harnessing these technological foundations, Harris said she believes that more innovation and further progress is necessary.
“The proud heritage of Pittsburgh … reveals the character of our nation, a nation that harnesses the ambitions, the dreams, and the aspirations of our people; seizes the opportunities before us because we see them, because we believe in them; and then invents the future,” Harris said. At that, she wrapped up her speech and was waved off with a standing ovation.
Pittsburgh-born investor Mark Cuban attended Harris’ speech and gave his pitch for her candidacy to news media. Arden Ryan/ News Editor
Among the audience of campaign supporters and business leaders in Chosky Theater was Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban, an investor and television personality behind the reality show Shark Tank. After Harris left the theater, Cuban stuck around for nearly an hour giving television interviews to major networks including CNN and Fox on his takeaways from the speech and his pitch for Harris’ candidacy.
A prominent supporter of Harris’ presidential campaign, Cuban has put his venture capitalist heft behind her run. When asked by The Tartan why college students in particular should get involved in this election, Cuban stressed the future implications of the outcome of November’s vote.
“This is your future,” Cuban told The Tartan. Whether the issues young voters care about are climate change or the future of biomedicine, they will “be on this earth 75 years more, maybe longer, depending on technology.” When “today’s students are 50 years old,” he said, the policies being debated now will most affect them. “Supporting Kamala Harris opens the door to a brighter future.”
Raka Mazumder, a senior in the Tepper School of Business who was invited to attend the event, said she was greatly moved by the speech.
“Especially as a South Asian woman, seeing that representation on stage for the first time in history was really inspiring,” she said.
Mazumder said she found it clear from Harris’ speech that “she’s not all talk.” Harris delineated “distinct policies that she’s hoping to enact for first time homeowners and for people that are having children for the first time … [and] people looking to start small businesses,” supporting those groups through specialized tax credits. “That’s what we need in a future president,” Mazumder said. “Somebody who has tangible policies.”
Mazumder was joined at the speech by several other Tepper students, including Junior Valeria Minguela Torres, who were invited to the event by the assistant dean of Tepper.
“To any college students out there, I really emphasize the importance of voting in this election” for our future, said Minguela Torres. “Our lives really depend on the policies that are going to take place in these upcoming years.”
A line of supporters began forming at 11 a.m. for Harris’ 3:15 speech. Arden Ryan/ News Editor
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