On October 4, 2024, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States, delivered a speech at a campaign event held at a firehouse in Redford Charter Township, Michigan, USA.
Elisabeth Franz | Reuters
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday announced a Black-focused “Opportunity Agenda” proposal that includes a plan to provide $1 million in forgivable loans to Black entrepreneurs and new programs to help Black Americans succeed in the legalized marijuana industry. way.
“This agenda is Vice President Harris’s next step in realizing the opportunity economy,” Harris campaign co-chairman and former Rep. Cedric Richmond said in a statement. “It’s an economy where people not only get by but make progress. Black people have the tools to thrive: buy homes, raise families, start businesses and build wealth.”
Harris’ announcement aims to increase her support Among black male voters, it’s the final weeks of an extremely close race between the Democratic vice president and Republican former President Trump.
The plan outlined Monday would provide 1 million fully forgivable loans of up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs. The loans will be funded through partnerships between “mission-driven lenders,” community-oriented banks and the Small Business Administration, the campaign said.
The agenda also includes training and mentoring programs to help black people find jobs in high-demand industries, and more investment in a public service loan forgiveness program to recruit and retain black male teachers.
The PSLF program provides student loan forgiveness after 10 years to borrowers working in certain nonprofit and government jobs. Black people account for less than 2% of public school teachers in the United States. According to the survey results National survey of teachers and principals for the 2020-21 school year.
A victory in November would make Harris the first black woman and first South Asian elected to the U.S. president.
Harris also pledged that she would support legalizing marijuana at the federal level, a big step forward from the Biden administration’s current stance on marijuana, which includes pardoning people convicted of marijuana possession and exploring new additions to the drug list. on the possibility of reclassifying cannabis.
Harris “will work with Congress to ensure the safe cultivation, distribution and possession of recreational marijuana becomes the law of the land and break the unjust laws that hinder Black people and other Americans by legalizing marijuana nationwide,” Harris said. obstacles”.
“She will also work to ensure that as the national cannabis industry takes shape, Black people whose use of marijuana has been over-policed for years are able to access wealth and employment opportunities in this new market,” the campaign said.
Harris’ new plan also includes some content on digital assets, another area where Harris appears ready to break with the Biden administration.
According to her campaign, Harris “knows that more than 20% of Black Americans own or have owned cryptocurrency assets, which is why her plan will ensure that owners and investors of digital assets benefit from a regulatory framework that allows Black people to and others participating in this market are protected.
It was unclear Monday what that framework would look like, but the fierce battle over cryptocurrency regulation in Washington is well underway.
While polls showed black voters overwhelmingly favoring Harris over Trump, President Joe Biden ended the 2020 campaign with gains in key Democratic districts just three weeks before Election Day, according to a recent report from New York Higher approval ratings The Times/Siena College polling.
Polls in late September and early October found that about 15% of potential black voters said they planned to vote for Trump in November. That’s six percentage points higher than Biden’s final advantage with black voters in the 2020 race. The numbers effectively quantify the ground Harris hopes to make up in the coming weeks.
Harris also hopes to draw a sharp contrast between herself and Trump through new proposals targeting black people.
The vice president often links the former president to the “Project 2025” agenda, a series of hard-line policy plans developed by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and more than 100 other right-leaning organizations.
Trump is trying to distance himself from Plan 2025, which proposes cutting funding for education and safety net programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
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