The Economist announced Thursday that the outlet is backing Vice President Harris over former President Trump in the upcoming election, now less than a week away.
“While some newspapers refused to back a presidential candidate this year, today The Economist is endorsing Kamala Harris,” Economist editors wrote in the endorsement published early Thursday. “Tens of millions of Americans will vote for Mr. Trump next week. Some will be true believers. But many will take a calculated risk that in office his worst instincts would be constrained.”
The writers added later that if Trump were to win election, “Americans would be gambling with the economy, the rule of law and international peace.”
The announcement comes amid controversy over major publications like USA Today and The Washington Post, which decided not to endorse a presidential candidate this campaign cycle. The Post reportedly lost more than 200,000 digital subscribers in light of its decision, according to NPR.
“Harris’s shortcomings, by contrast, are ordinary. And none of them are disqualifying,” The Economist endorsement reads. “If The Economist had a vote, we would cast it for her.”
The Democratic nominee has also received endorsements from the New York Times, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, Las Vegas Sun, the New Yorker and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Trump has received backing from the New York Post.
The publication was also one of a handful that pressed President Biden to step aside from the race following his disastrous debate performance against Trump earlier this year.
“Mr. Biden says he is standing again to help ordinary Americans and to save democracy from Mr Trump’s vengeful demagoguery,” The Economist said at the time. “And the former president’s scowling, evasive and truth-defying appearance on the debate stage did nothing to diminish the urgency of those two aims. “
“Yet if Mr. Biden really cares about his mission, then his last and greatest public service should be to stand aside for another Democratic nominee,” the editors wrote.
With Harris at the helm, the race remains tight ahead of Election Day. The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling average shows the party nominees within 0.1 points of each other nationally, with the vice president up 47.9 percent to Trump’s 47.8 percent.
The Hill has reached out to the Harris and Trump campaigns for comment. (The Hill)
