Democratic vice presidential candidate and Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz (left) and Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance (religious party, Ohio).
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Housing
Affordable housing is an important issue for many Americans, and both Walz and Vance have addressed the issue.
In May 2023, Walz signed a housing bill that included a $200 million down payment. The bill also included $200 million for housing infrastructure and $40 million for workforce housing.
“We expect Walz to champion demand-side approaches to housing,” TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a statement in July. “These are the kinds of housing ideas we would expect from a Harris administration,” she wrote.
Demand-side approaches in housing aim to help individual households by improving housing quality or reducing monthly housing costs.
Vance, who is also an advocate for affordable housing, addressed this issue in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention and during the election campaign.
“Before running for Senate, Vance argued that affordable housing was key to fighting poverty,” and he opposed institutional ownership of rental housing and Chinese buyers of U.S. real estate, Seiberg wrote.
Child allowance
If Congress does not act, trillions of dollars in tax cuts passed by Trump will expire after 2025. This includes the child tax credit, which will be reduced from $2,000 to $1,000 per child.
Congress approved a temporary expansion of the child tax credit in 2021, including monthly advance payments, which reduced the child poverty rate to a historic low of 5.2% in 2021, according to a Columbia University analysis.
Minnesota followed federal policy and introduced a refundable state-level child tax credit in 2023, which Walz called “a groundbreaking success.”
Minnesota's new child tax credit is unusually low, but it is the most generous in the country for low-income households.
Jared Walczak
Vice President for Government Projects at the Tax Foundation
“Minnesota's new child tax credit is unusual in its small size,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of government projects at the Tax Foundation. “But it is the most generous in the country for low-income households.”
But a permanent expansion of the federal child tax credit could prove difficult, especially given a divided Congress and growing concerns about the federal budget deficit.
Walz's campaign team did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Senate Republicans blocked an expansion of the federal child tax credit last week, and Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, called the vote a “blatant attempt to score political points.”
Despite the failed procedural vote, Crapo expressed his willingness to negotiate a “solution to the child tax credit that a majority of Republicans can support.”
Democrats called the vote in part as a response to Vance, who has positioned himself as a family-friendly candidate. Vance was not present for the Senate vote but has expressed support for the child tax credit.
Vance's campaign did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Student loans
Vance has spoken out against the policy of student loan forgiveness.
“Forgiving student debt is a huge windfall for the wealthy, for college graduates, and most importantly, for America's corrupt university administrations,” Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, wrote on X in April 2022. “Republicans must fight this with every ounce of our energy and power.”
Outstanding education debt in the United States is around $1.6 trillion. Nearly 43 million people – or one in six American adults – have student loans. Women and people of color bear the greatest debt burden.
Vance appears to favor debt forgiveness in extreme cases. In May, he helped introduce legislation that would exempt parents from student loans taken out for a child who is permanently disabled.
Jane Fox, president of the Legal Aid Society (UAW Local 2325), said it was hypocritical and wrong of Vance to portray debt relief as a benefit for the wealthy.
“Student debt relief is a working-class issue,” Fox said. “The 1% who went to elite institutions and then worked in private equity like Senator Vance rarely needed debt relief.”
Vance's campaign did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Meanwhile, Walz, a former teacher, supports programs to alleviate student debt, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
He signed a student loan forgiveness program for prospective law students in Minnesota, Kantrowitz said, as well as a tuition exemption initiative for low-income students.
“As my daughter prepares to head off to college next year, the issues of affordability and student loan debt are top of mind for us,” Walz wrote on Facebook in 2018. “Every Minnesotan deserves a chance at a great education without being hampered by rising costs and student loan debt.”