What economic challenges await Kamala Harris as US president hopeful?

Economists expect Harris to pivot her economic policies to the centre to appeal to voters in swing states.

As Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris overtakes her Republican opponent Donald Trump in opinion polls – she is now leading in five crucial swing states – experts warn she will face “a heavy road” when it comes to passing economic legislation should she become the next president of the United States.

The year 2025 will be one filled with political negotiations as several significant pieces of economic legislation are set to expire, including tax cuts for individuals under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the reinstatement of the nation’s debt limit, which was suspended last year.

But with voters choosing members of both houses of the US Congress – all of the lower House of Representatives and a third of the upper chamber, the Senate – in November as well, Harris’s ability to push through any legislation will depend on how Democrats perform in those elections.

“The House is up for grabs, but if the Senate is Republican – a likely outcome – Harris will have a heavy road in getting any legislation passed,” Gary Clyde Hufbauer, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Al Jazeera.

Among those major pieces of legislation are the individual provisions under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which are due to expire at the end of next year when they will revert to the levels of a 2016 law.