Anika Begay
Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (left) and Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH).
Getty Images
Housing
In May 2023, Walz signed a housing bill that included $200 million in down payment assistance. The bill also included $200 million for housing infrastructure and $40 million for workforce housing.
“We expect Walz to be a champion of demand-side approaches to housing,” Jaret Seiberg, an analyst at TD Cowen, wrote in a July statement. “These are the housing ideas we would expect from a Harris administration,” he wrote.
Demand-driven housing approaches aim to help individual households by improving the quality of housing or reducing monthly housing costs.
Meanwhile, Vance, who is also a supporter of public housing, highlighted the issue in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention and during the campaign.
“Before running for Senate, Vance argued that a key element in fighting poverty was public housing,” and he opposed institutional rental ownership and Chinese buyers of U.S. homes, Seiberg wrote.
Child Tax Credit
Without the intervention of Congress, Trump’s trillions of dollars in tax breaks are set to expire after 2025, including the child tax credit, which will go from $2,000 to $1,000 per child.
According to a Columbia University analysis, in 2021, Congress passed a temporary expansion of the child tax credit, which includes advance monthly payments, which reduced the child poverty rate to a record low of 5.2% for 2021.
Following federal policy, Minnesota enacted a statewide refundable child tax credit in 2023, which Walz described as “a tremendous achievement.”
Minnesota’s new child tax credit is unusual in its smallness, but it’s the most generous in the nation for low-income families.
Jared Walczak
Vice President of State Projects at the Tax Foundation
“Minnesota’s new child tax credit is unusual in its narrowness,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the Tax Foundation. “But it’s the most generous in the nation for low-income families.”
However, a permanent expansion of the federal child tax credit could prove difficult, especially at a time when Congress is divided and concerns about the federal budget deficit are growing.
Walz’s campaign did not respond to Vscek’s request for comment.
Senate Republicans last week blocked an expansion of the federal child tax credit, with Sen. Mike Crapo, Republican of Idaho, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, describing the vote as a “blatant attempt to score political points.”
Despite the failed procedural vote, Crapo said he was willing to negotiate a “child tax credit solution that a majority of Republicans can support.”
Democrats scheduled the vote partly in response to Vance, who has positioned himself as a pro-family candidate. Vance was not present for the Senate vote, but he has expressed support for the child tax credit.
Vance’s campaign did not respond to Vscek’s request for comment.
Student Loans
Vance has spoken out against student loan forgiveness policies.
“Forgiving student debt is a godsend for America’s wealthy, for college students, and especially for America’s corrupt university administrators,” said Vance, a Yale Law School graduate. he wrote on X in April 2022. “Republicans must fight this with every ounce of our energy and power.”
Outstanding student debt in the United States is approximately $1.6 trillion. Nearly 43 million people, or 1 in 6 American adults, have student loans. Women and people of color are the most burdened by debt.
Vance appears to approve of loan forgiveness in extreme cases. In May, he helped introduce a law that would have exempted parents from student loans taken out for a child who has become permanently disabled.
Jane Fox, president of Chapter 2325 of the Legal Aid Society, or UAW, said it was hypocritical and unfair for Vance to portray debt relief as a boon to the wealthy.
“Student debt cancellation is a working-class issue,” Fox said. “The 1 percenters who went to elite institutions and then worked in private equity like Senator Vance have rarely needed debt cancellation.”
Vance’s campaign did not respond to Vscek’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, Walz, a former teacher, has supported programs aimed at easing the burden of student debt on individuals, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
Kantrowitz said he has signed a bill to cancel loans for nursing students in Minnesota, as well as an initiative to make college tuition free for low-income students.
“As my daughter prepares to leave for college next year, affordability and student loan debt are top of mind,” Walz wrote on Facebook in 2018. “Every Minnesotan deserves to have a great education opportunity without being held back by skyrocketing costs and student loan debt.”
