Campaign

Harris campaign says Project 2025 ‘isn’t going anywhere’ after director departs

by Alex Gangitano - 07/30/24 4:32 PM ET

Vice President Harris’s campaign argues that Project 2025 will still be on the ballot in November after the project’s director left his role amid criticism from former President Trump’s campaign.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Harris campaign said that “Project 2024 isn’t going anywhere,” despite the Heritage Foundation announcing that Paul Dans, the director of the foundation-led project, is stepping down.

“Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding.”

Dans was previously chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management in the Trump administration and he’s leaving the Heritage Foundation as Democrats have made Project 2025 central to their campaign attacks on Trump and the GOP.

Trump and his campaign has distanced themselves from Project 2025, which is a 900-page hard-right policy blueprint for a future GOP administration that many Trump allies had a hand in creating.

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“What remains clear is that Trump, Vance, and the Project 2025 agenda will take America backwards: more abortion bans, more suffering, higher costs for the middle class, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, dirtier air and water, and empowering Trump to destroy American democracy,” Chavez Rodriguez said in her statement.

“Vice President Kamala Harris is fighting for a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. Where Americans are free from Republicans inserting themselves into our bedrooms, family rooms, and doctor’s offices,” she added.

Trump’s campaign released a statement earlier on Tuesday about Dans leaving his role, reiterating its stance “that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign,” adding that they would welcome news of the project’s “demise.”