Vice-President Kamala Harris will try to use her debate on Tuesday against former President Donald Trump to argue that Americans are ready to turn the page on the politics of the past decade, with its turmoil and social animus.

But Trump, standing just feet away, is likely to make a different case: He is expected to try to paint Harris as the candidate of the status quo.

The debate will pose a challenge for Harris, who will have to decide how much to embrace or distance herself from President Joe Biden and his policies at a moment when polls show that many Americans are hungry for change. It is a conundrum other vice presidents have faced while seeking the presidency, and Harris’ allies said she would have to tread carefully as she makes a case for herself.

“She can praise Biden and talk about the accomplishments, but also acknowledge that the work is not done,” said Bakari Sellers, an ally of Harris and a Democratic political commentator. “So she has to be willing to display to the American people a level of empathy and understanding, and not simply say everything we did was God’s gift to politics.”

A recent poll by The New York Times and Siena College highlighted the difficult task Harris faces. It found that 61 per cent of likely voters said the next president should represent a major change from Biden. Only 25 per cent said Harris represented that change, while 53 per cent said Trump did.

One of the most glaring vulnerabilities for the vice-president is an economy that is stable but whose benefits many voters say they cannot feel. The poll found that Trump held a 13-percentage-point advantage on the economy, the issue that was cited as the most important to voters.

Biden championed and pushed through legislation to modernize the country’s infrastructure and pull the economy out of a pandemic spiral, but in recent years he has presided over a period of high inflation, with voters feeling pinched by higher costs of living.

Harris’ advisers have pointed out that she has already introduced some policies that they hope will make her appealing to voters and to members of the business community, and strike a subtle contrast with Biden.

But they also say the contrast Harris cares about striking is the one between herself and Trump. She has embraced her past as a prosecutor as a strength in her ability to take on the former president. And she has focused much of her campaign message on preserving personal freedoms rather than on democracy, an idea Biden had championed.

Last week, Harris said she would increase the capital gains tax at a far lower rate than what the president had proposed.

(On Friday, dozens of business leaders, including billionaire Mark Cuban and former 21st Century Fox chair James Murdoch, signed a letter of support for her.)

New York Times News Service