Harris, Walz antitrust policy would prioritize growth, competition

Vice President Kamala Harris would prioritize small business growth and large industry competition in shaping her own antitrust and regulatory policy if she wins the presidency in November, Maryland’s Democratic Gov. Wes Moore said Wednesday.

“Making sure that we are both supporting our small businesses and making it easier for small business to be able to grow, and also making it easier for our large industries to be able to compete within our states and within this country is something that I think is going to be important” to Harris, Moore said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

A pro-growth, pro-competition approach to business in a potential Harris administration would mark a striking divergence from the aggressive trust-busting and merger-skeptical principles that have shaped the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda.

“As the vice president is thinking about a future-facing administration, there are going to be different dynamics that are going to require different philosophies,” said Moore. “There will be different sociopolitical and just political dynamics that is going to require a different set, a different lens and a different vision.”

Moore is a close Biden-Harris ally and a rising star in the Democratic Party who rose to national prominence this year after the collapse of the Baltimore bridge in March.

But he also previously worked as an investment banker for Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, and he ran the Robin Hood Foundation, the New York-based anti-poverty charity that draws much of its backing from Wall Street.

The Harris campaign did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment about Moore’s remarks.

But his comments could feed the hopes of Wall Street dealmakers who are already optimistic that a potential Harris administration — while firmly rooted in progressive economic traditions — might deprioritize the aggressive antitrust regime that has been a trademark of Biden’s presidency.

Democratic megadonors such as IAC Chair Barry Diller and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman have gone so far as to publicly call on Harris to commit to replacing Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who has been on the front line of the crackdown on big deals over the past three years.

U.S. presidents are not permitted to fire the leaders of independent agencies such as the FTC at will, and Harris has given no indication of a schism with the Biden-Harris administration’s FTC.

But presidents may, if they choose, replace the chairs of independent commissions like the FTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission with another member of the commission, and by doing so, shift agency priorities.

Diller and Hoffman’s public lobbying effort reflects a growing view in corporate America that Harris might be open to taking a less aggressive approach to big business regulation, especially when it comes to mergers.

“This ‘big is bad’ hostility [from Biden] will fall by the wayside” in a potential Harris administration, according to White & Case partner George Paul, who recently advised an attempted merger between Kroger and Albertsons. “I don’t think Harris will go that far. I think she’s going to take a step back.”

Just over two weeks into her presidential campaign, Harris is still shaping a policy platform. In the meantime, her corporate rhetoric has echoed some of Biden’s. But not all of it.

“I will take on price gouging and bring down costs,” Harris said at an Atlanta rally in July. “We will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.”

Beyond the campaign trail, how Harris would govern if she wins the White House is still, in many ways, an open question.