Trump Ties Harris Critically to Her Father, a Professor Who Studied Marxism

Early in Tuesday’s debate, former President Donald J. Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris by tying her to her father.

“She’s a Marxist — everybody knows she’s a Marxist,” Mr. Trump said. “Her father is a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well.”

Ms. Harris has repeatedly made clear that she supports capitalism. But her father, Donald J. Harris, a renowned economist who has been a fleeting figure in her life, has been described as a “Marxist scholar.”

Marxism refers to the political, social and economic theories of Karl Marx, practiced as socialism or communism.

Dr. Harris was the first Black scholar to receive tenure in Stanford’s economics department and a prominent critic of mainstream economic theory from the left. The Stanford Daily, the university’s student newspaper, reporting in 1976, said that there was some opposition to granting him tenure because he was “too charismatic, a pied piper leading students astray from neo-Classical economics.”

Ms. Harris has received the backing of more than 80 chief executives, some of whom have called her “pro-business.”

Dr. Harris is still a professor emeritus at Stanford and turned 86 last month, the day after Ms. Harris spoke at the Democratic National Convention. He did not appear alongside her that evening, but she did pay a rare homage to him in her speech, saying that his encouragement had helped inspire her.

“From my earliest years,” Ms. Harris said then, “he taught me to be fearless.”