NEW YORK — One presidential candidate is talking up gun ownership and promising tough border security measures. The other vows to cap credit card interest rates and force insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization.

Which is the Democrat and which the Republican?

The lines that have long defined each party’s policy priorities are blurring as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump seek to expand their coalitions in the final weeks of a fiercely competitive election. The contest may well hinge on how many disaffected suburban Republicans vote for Harris and how much of the Democrats’ traditional base — African Americans, Latinos, young people and labor union members — migrates to Trump.

That’s prompting both candidates to take stances that would have once been anathema to their bases, scrambling longtime assumptions about what each party stands for.

“There’s a whole host of issues that draw people to support President Trump, and quite frankly, these are issues that used to be core pillar issues of the Democratic Party,” Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who has emerged as a top Trump ally, said in an interview.

Barbara Comstock, who co-chaired Nikki Haley’s GOP presidential campaign this year, is now backing Harris. A former Republican congresswoman from Virginia, she marveled at feeling more aligned with Democrats this year, pointing to Harris’ call for an expanded child care tax credit, support for a tough bipartisan immigration bill and a foreign policy stance that Comstock said was in stark contrast to Trump’s admiration for leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“As a Republican, I feel like, hey, the Democrats are on my side now,” Comstock said in an interview.

Of course, Trump has broken from the GOP’s traditional conservative values on issues like trade and foreign policy for much of the past decade. But he has gone further this fall, testing the loyalty of social and small-government conservatives with an agenda that downplays his opposition to abortion and calls for significant government intervention in health care and the economy.

Last week, Trump said he wanted the federal government to cap credit card interest rates at 10%, a move that quickly irked fiscal conservatives. Last month, he said he supports a federal law that would force insurance companies to pay for IVF, frustrating some social conservatives who believe the embryos used in the process should be protected. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly voted against the issue.

Gabbard declined to say whether she views Trump as a conservative.

In addition to IVF, she pointed to the Trump-backed criminal justice reform that reduced sentences for many inmates. She also highlighted a foreign policy philosophy that seeks to avoid U.S. involvement in global conflicts like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another former Democrat, have emerged as the Trump campaign’s most visible national surrogates in his bid to win over undecided Democrats and independents. The campaign has been slow to embrace other would-be allies, including Haley, who issued her first fundraising appeal on Trump’s behalf just last week.

By comparison, Harris has adopted a more organized program to connect with Republican voters.

In recent days, her campaign has hosted events around abortion rights, border security and small-business creation that featured Republican officials.

Seven Republicans were granted speaking slots at the Democratic National Convention last month. And a slew of outside groups are spending millions of dollars to help Harris connect with disaffected Republicans, including Republican Voters Against Trump and the Anti-Psychopath PAC.

At the same time, Harris has embraced a much more muscular foreign policy. She has vowed to feature a Republican in her Cabinet if elected.

And she is speaking more openly about owning a gun — and her willingness to use it.

“I’m a gun owner,” Harris told Oprah Winfrey late last week.

“I did not know that!” the television star, a Harris supporter, said in surprise.

“If somebody breaks in my house, they’re getting shot. Sorry,” Harris responded with a laugh.

Harris’ support for robust U.S. leadership on the global stage has already helped her win the support of more than 100 Republican national security and foreign policy officials who served in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Trump. Former Vice President Dick Cheney is among the notable converts.

While Harris and Trump are embracing policies that appeal to the other side, their priorities still largely align with their party’s tradition.

Trump opposes abortion rights and says he is proud that the Supreme Court he transformed with conservative appointees overturned Roe v. Wade. He says abortion laws should be left to states.

Harris has just begun to articulate specific policy plans, having been in the presidential race for only eight weeks. But her record and her recent statements make clear that she favors liberal policies in most cases.