In recent weeks, the California senator has tried to differentiate her policy message from Democratic rivals — offering her own plans on health care, climate change and criminal justice reform. She has also noticeably eradicated go-to phrases like “we need to have that conversation” from her public vocabulary, after criticism she seemed too cautious .

“Maybe I’ve made it more clear, but I’ve been clear the whole time,” Ms. Harris said of her policy vision. “I’ve always thought and talked about what wakes people up in the middle of the night.”

Still, at times, Ms. Harris’s attempts to occupy a pragmatic middle ground between progressive firebrands and old-school Democratic moderates can land in awkward ways. In late July, she said “I’m not trying to restructure society,” but in recent weeks she has released a criminal justice plan that would overhaul prisons and police practices, and embraced the possible elimination of the Senate filibuster to pass the Green New Deal.

“I plan on restructuring things in a way that will address those things that wake people up in the middle of the night,” Ms. Harris clarified last week. “That’s the consistent through line from the beginning. And frankly, even before I ran, I’ve always thought about it around that kind of metaphor.”

Mr. Sanders and Ms. Warren often target Wall Street corporations as the root cause of people’s problems, and Mr. Biden has singled out President Trump as a unique existential threat. When asked what she views as the root cause of societal problems, Ms. Harris said leaders do not see and understand the tangible hardships of working families.