Mike Pence and Kamala Harris are the Vice Presidential candidates for the 2020 election. Mike Pence has held the position of Vice President under President Trump since his inauguration in 2017. Previously, he was the governor of Indiana and a member of the House of Representatives. Most recently, he was appointed chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Kamala Harris is the current Senator of California. Prior to this, she served as California Attorney General and was the first woman to ever hold this position. Biden chose Harris as his running mate for the 2020 election on August 11. This article will examine the differences between these two candidates.
LGBTQ community
One of the major differences between Pence and Harris is their perspectives about the LBGTQ community. They both disagree on how the other has handled the LGBTQ community. Kamala believes the community is not being treated as equally or fairly as they should. Pence believes in Christianity which has often opposed same-sex marriage, but has loosened up his stance over time.
Harris has a pro-LGBTQ rights political record dating back to 2004 when she took office in San Francisco as district attorney. The Biden-Harris duo is described as “the most pro-equality ticket in history,” (NBC). Throughout her career, Harris has made strides to bring equality to the LGBTQ community. In 2004, she created a hate crimes investigation unit in California to prosecute those connected to LGBTQ violence. In 2006, she created a team to end the gay and transgender panic defense in California and went on to introduce a bill to ban the practice on the national level. Harris has consistently been a proponent of equal rights for the LGBTQ community and has shown her support through her drive to establish legislation.
Pence has had a history of opposing same-sex marriage but has loosened his stance over time. In 2000, he stated, “Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage.” In 2004, he co-sponsored an amendment that was proposed in order to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. In 2014, he supported a bill to ban same-sex marriage in Indiana. Despite voting against same-sex marriage, in 2015, as governor, he passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, ensuring businesses cannot use the law to deny services to same-sex couples, eliminating businesses from discriminating against the LGBTQ community.
Public vs Private Schools
Another difference is Pence and Harris’ stance on schooling. Harris is a supporter of the public school system while Pence supports private schools, school vouchers, and charter schools and their expansion. Both believe that providing a strong education to all Americans is important. The difference falls in how to achieve it through funding, bigger versus smaller government proposals, and associated taxes.
In her first term as California Senator, she was given the grade of an A for “her focus on attracting and maintaining educators in neighborhood schools, and for understanding how this translated to the success of students in every zip code at a time when America is in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage,” (NEA). Kamala Harris is known to be an advocate for the public school system and its students. Harris is also a supporter of the teachers themselves and believes they should be paid more for the work they do. She is against for-profit charter and private schools and has shown this through her votes against vouchers. She also advocates for increased funding for public schools and disagreed with Trump’s promise to re-allocate public school funding to private school vouchers. She wants to make college more affordable for everyone by offering free-college.
Pence is a supporter of private education, school vouchers, and charter schools. Pence has advocated for charter school expansion and sees the privatization of education as a way to improve its quality. Pence believes in the local control and regulation of schools. He believes that the federal government should provide funding, not strict rules and guidelines for the school system. He is a strong proponent of parent choice in where their children are going to school.
Pence finds schooling very important and believes that children should have access to the best school, whether that means public or private. A huge part of the children’s schooling is the teachers. Pence supports the idea of making teaching a more sought after career and created a grant in Indiana that would provide students in the top of their class with a scholarship if they committed to teaching for at least five years. Pence has also voted to eliminate the No Child Left Behind testing requirements and has made advancements to keep education regulations at the local level.
Abortion
Harris and Pence also differ on their opinions about abortion. Harris is Pro-Choice while Pence is Pro-Life. Pence has highlighted the fact that Trump’s administration is the most Pro-Life administration in history. He has also thanked Trump for supporting the anti-abortion movement and stated that “Life is winning in America today.” Pence believes that the Supreme Court needs more conservatives and that it is important that Trump is president for another four years in order to ensure this. This statement followed a supreme court decision to block abortion restrictions in Louisiana.
Harris is a strong supporter of allowing abortion in the U.S. For abortion rights activists, Harris was the ideal choice for Biden’s running mate. Harris is supported by Planned Parenthood because of her dedication to reproductive rights and healthcare. Harris has defended abortion and Pro-Choice, and has emphasized the importance of moving forward in women’s rights. She also advocates for access to birth control and reproductive health care to all.
Climate Change
Another difference between Harris and Pence is their levels of concern regarding climate change. The Trump/Pence administration has continued to approve oil pipelines and fossil fuel production. Pence called the Paris Climate Accord “disastrous” and “job-killing.” Notwithstanding, Pence has stated that climate change “has some impact on climate.” He has scaled back or eliminated 100 environmental regulations that were meant to prioritize clean energy. He has done this with the idea of putting American jobs first, while helping the energy department provide pathways to clean energy innovation. The energy department has been making changes to funding and international agreements to push clean energy innovation in the private sector. The energy department under Trump-Pence has supported clean energy technologies and privatization of clean-coal, emission-free nuclear reactors, offshore wind, and underwater energy turbines.
Harris sees climate change as a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. She calls it a fight that we need to be participating in and that our “leaders need to lead.” She does not think that as a nation we need to choose between jobs and climate protection, but that we can create more green jobs that will not cause harm to the environment. Harris finds it extremely important that as a country we make sure that ourselves and our children will have access to clean air and water. Throughout her political career, she has consistently fought to defend clean energy. For example, she has stood up for polluted communities that are positioned next to industrial plants. She also fought for and won an $86 million settlement from Volkswagen after they were caught cheating on emissions tests as well as won indictments after an oil spill off the coast of California. She was also the original co-sponsor with AOC in the Green New Deal, which was estimated to cost anywhere from $50–$90 trillion over the next decade, according to Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, and “is prepared to get rid of the filibuster in order to pass the Green New Deal.” Harris calls environmental awareness a national security issue. She believes that though right now people are fighting over oil, soon they will be fighting over clean water.
Immigration
Pence is pro-legal immigration and believes that immigration loopholes need to be closed. He believes that people should not just be able to come into this country and then disappear without showing up to their immigration hearing in court. While he believes that the conditions at the border are unacceptable, he blames this on the democrats in congress that are not passing bills to allow more bed space. Pence states that the borders are in this horrible condition because of the overwhelming amount of people that are trying to take advantage of the U.S and the loopholes. He calls the unsecured Mexican border a National Emergency.
Overall, Harris is pro-immigration, but the issue is not a priority for her campaign. Her plan around immigration focuses on the treatment of the illegal immigrants who are already in the United States rather than the process of making crossing the border legal. She explains that she would use executive authority to give illegal immigrants legal status or deferred action. If elected, Harris has indicated she would pursue policy that would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants residing in the United States and restore DACA and DAPA protections. She would also increase oversight on ICE and CBP to prevent human rights abuses. She also promises to fix the family-visa backlog but does not elaborate on the specifics.
Religious Freedom
Pence finds religious freedom to be important, and says that it is especially important to him because of his relationship with Jesus. During the 2nd Annual Religious Freedom Ministerial. “As Vice President of the United States, I stand for the freedom of religion that animated the American founding and is enshrined in our Bill of Rights.” He also calls himself a “champion of religious freedom at home and abroad.” He believes that religious freedom is a human right, not a law.
Harris has a narrower view of religious freedom. She has previously shown hostility towards the Catholic religion. She also believes the publicly professing one’s faith and using it to make political decisions disqualifies them from this public life. In 2019, Harris introduced the Do Not Harm Act, which would neutralize the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that protects religious rights and practices. She explained that RFRA was being used to deny healthcare or other services. For example, the Do Not Harm Act would require a Catholic doctor to perform an abortion if they receive federal reimbursement, even if it is extremely against their own religious beliefs. Additionally, she has shown support of policies that have restricted religious freedom, such as one that banned Sikh prison guards from keeping beards for religious reasons, and when she filed an amicus brief in 2014, telling the Supreme Court not to give Hobby Lobby a religious exemption for Obama’s contraceptive mandate for all employees.
Military Spending
Pence believes that military spending should be increased. He finds it extremely important that the funds are there to support the military with resources. While Trump stated that he does not want to increase the federal deficit with military spending in the 2018 plan, he explained that he would be re-allocating the funds from other areas to the military. Pence and Trump plan on rebuilding the military and restoring its power to increase national security. The U.S. military has served as a stabilizing presence globally for years, but limits on the budget make it harder to maintain that stability. Pence also wants to ensure that the American military is prepared for a conflict with a comparable nation military-wise.
Contrarily, Harris is a supporter of reducing defense spending. She believes that a portion of the funds should be re-allocated to communities in need in the U.S. However, she did vote against the proposal Bernie Sanders made to cut 10% of the pentagon’s budget. She stated “I unequivocally agree with the goal of reducing the defense budget and redirecting funding to communities in need, but it must be done strategically.” She goes on to explain that she hopes a more specific solution will be sought in the future that will solve the complicated issues of the defense budget while supporting national communities in need.
Gun Control
Pence has shown strong support of the Second Amendment through his pro-gun rights voting record. He is supportive of gun ownership and believes that it makes communities safer. He has an A rating from the NRA and is a defender of the 2nd amendment. He also has voted yes on prohibiting lawsuits of gun manufacturers for product misuse. He finds it important that kids are educated on gun safety and supports the Eddie Eagle GunSafe program. Overall, Pence supports loosening gun restrictions. He wants to make guns more accessible, but as with President Trump, has been supportive of criminal background checks and other measures to protect guns from getting in the wrong hands.
Harris supports gun control. She believes there needs to be restrictions and that precautions need to be taken with gun sales. She stated that she would require background checks for customers of firearm dealers as well as close the boyfriend loophole, which allows known abusers to possess a gun if they have a dating partner, but not a spouse. Harris also wants to ban assault rifle and semi-automatic weapons as well as prevent fugitives from purchasing handguns or weapons.
Healthcare
Pence is a supporter of private healthcare with pre-existing conditions and other reduced stipulations carried over from Obamacare, but has supported its repeal and replace efforts. In the 2020 Trump-Pence plan, the administration supports lowering of drug prices. He does not believe that Medicaid is useful as it stands now, explaining that 2 out of 3 children on the plan could not see a specialist if they needed to. Additionally, he has also worked to strip funds from Planned Parenthood and stop abortions in the US and abroad as well as get rid of protections for transgender patients, meaning transgender patients who don’t use their original sex in their healthcare or treatment appointment could be refused service.
When running as a presidential candidate, Harris proposed Medicare for All, or Universal Healthcare. She is passionate about the issue as her mother battled cancer but gratefully was on Medicare which allowed pre-existing conditions. In her plan, she would still allow private insurers to be involved. They could offer a plan, but it would have restrictions and requirements to make it more affordable. Additionally, her plan would be phased in over a period of 10 years. When both Harris and Biden were candidates instead of running mates, they fought over healthcare issues. They had different ideas of what coverage should look like and she claimed that his plan would leave some Americans without coverage at all.
Taxes
In the early democratic debates, Harris proposed her own tax reform. She wants to increase the marginal tax rates for the top 1% of earners up to 39.6% as well as implement a 4% tax on households making over $100,000 to fund her healthcare plan. Harris also proposed a number of other changes to the tax code that would increase after-tax income. She also wants to increase taxes on capital gains and corporate income. Biden and Harris had differing views on taxes during these debates, but there were similarities including raising the corporate income tax rate and taxing capital gains and dividends at the normal income tax rates. Under Biden-Harris, they propose that no one making under $400,000 per year will receive a tax increase, but that is not possible, if they plan to repeal Trump’s tax cuts.
Pence on the other hand is supportive of simplifying the tax code. He also has been supportive of tax relief rather than stimulus bills. He supports tax cuts for working families. Pence believes that cutting taxes will help Americans prosper and that tax rates need to be lowered. He is in favor of a flat tax rate in addition to, of course, the Trump-Pence tax cuts passed in 2018.
