The economy will be a paramount issue this week as Democrats gather in Chicago to fully anoint Kamala Harris as their nominee just weeks after President Joe Biden dropped his own bid for the presidency.
Harris told reporters Sunday that much of her convention speech scheduled for Thursday has already been written with only tweaks remaining.
It will be "much of what you’ve heard me talk about before in terms of what I believe to be the promise of America," she added during a bus tour of the commonwealth where the economy was an oft-discussed topic.c
The convention follows last week’s release of Harris’s cost-of-living plan, which focused on housing costs, drug prices, and grocery store prices, and a heated back-and-forth on the economy with GOP nominee Donald Trump that continued through this past weekend.
The days ahead will feature plenty more from both Democrats as well as from Trump, who will be traveling all week starting with a Monday schedule that his campaign promises will be focused on making "America Wealthy Again."
Harris is still being defined when it comes to the economy. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday found that while 72% of Americans rate the economy poorly, they are giving Harris some leeway on it.
More than 6 in 10 respondents think she's had "limited influence on the administration's economic policies."
Here are some of the economic themes to watch as Democrats gather with just 78 days until Election Day.
A populist economic message from Dems
There will likely be an attempt by speakers this week — the list includes President Joe Biden, Michelle Obama as well as both Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz — to continue focusing on specific "kitchen table" issues over broad economic themes.
It's a tactic that reflects polling that has repeatedly shown voters are focused on prices and personal economic concerns above all else.
"The golden rule is stay away from anything macro that is about other people's lives and bring everything to a micro family budget level," said Adam Green, a Harris supporter and co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
Read more: Cell phones, TVs, used cars: Here's where prices are easing up as inflation cools
Green has overseen a range of polling in this area and often briefs the Harris campaign on his results.
"I do think that as you watch the convention, there will hopefully be a through line of economic populism — fighting for the little guy," he added.
Much of that strategy has already been evidenced by Harris with the release of a cost-of-living plan last week focused on housing costs and grocery store prices.
The plan includes ideas like expanding the child tax credit to $6,000 for the first year of a child's life and a first-time homebuyer credit of $25,000.
Read more: First-time homebuyer programs: Everything you need to know
Harris was also pressed Sunday on how she would pay for her plan — which is estimated to cost about $1.7 trillion — and said that increases in home ownership and in strengthened communities would represent a return on investment.
"Everybody benefits and it pays for itself in that way," she said.
A Harris campaign spokesperson followed up to add that Harris supported other methods to directly raise the revenue that President Biden has previously proposed, including increasing taxes on billionaires and large corporations.
Another plank of last week's plan was what the campaign called a federal ban on price gouging in grocery stores. What voters think of that idea remains to be seen, but the Trump campaign immediately seized on it and compared it to Soviet-style price controls.
"Comrade Kamala" has become the latest nickname that the Trump campaign is trying to affix to the Democratic nominee.
President Joe Biden will be the keynote speaker Monday night, where he will also focus, according to the Harris-Walz campaign, on his work helping to build "the strongest economy in the world."
His overall speech is expected to focus more closely on the theme of defending democracy.
A focus on Trump — specifically on his tariffs
The week is also set to feature a broad array of attacks on Trump's tariff ambitions, specifically a comment last week in which the former president suggested he wanted tariff rates of 10% to 20% on America's trading partners.
"He wants to impose what is, in effect, a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other countries," Harris said Friday, adding that the "plan would cost a typical family $3,900 a year."
That figure comes from an estimate made by Brendan Duke of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, which found that 10% tariffs (combined with Trump's other promise of a 60% tariff on Chinese goods) could add $2,500 annually to household budgets, while a 20% tariff could net out to a $3,900 tab.
Trump responded to the emerging Democratic attack during a rally Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he defended his tariff plan at length and said, "A tariff is a tax on a foreign country, and that's the way it is, whether you like it or not."
"It is a tax on a country that is ripping us off and stealing our jobs, and it is a tax that doesn't affect our country," he added.
In fact, tariffs are assessed on companies as they bring in goods at ports of entry into the United States.
They can have a significant effect on US consumers. Who pays the costs of tariffs in the end can be mixed, but economists often say the bulk of those costs are borne by consumers in the US in the form of increased prices.
The DNC is also set to lean into social media influencers with what organizers are terming a "blue carpet." It appears set to be a spin room of sorts, where high-ranking Democratic officials can appear and mingle with creators and reporters.
The convention is also set to include a series of economic-focused events on the sidelines in what organizers are calling "DemPalooza," including labor and small business meetings as well as gatherings from outside groups trying to shape the Democrat's economic agenda.
One event is called "A Toast to a New Economy," featuring top Democratic officials and some outside business-world supporters.
"The real and true measure of the strength of a leader is who you lift up," Harris told supporters during a stop Sunday on her bus tour, adding, "that's what we see as strength."
Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance