LAS VEGAS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris vowed Saturday to work to eliminate taxes on tips earned by restaurant workers and other service-industry employees, matching a pledge made by her November election rival Donald Trump in a rare moment of synchronicity between the two sides.
Harris made her announcement at a rally on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where the economy relies heavily on the hospitality and entertainment industries. Trump promised much the same at his own rally in the city in June, though neither he nor Harris were unlikely to be able to fully deliver on that promise without Congress intervening.
“My promise to everyone here is that when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families in America,” Harris said. “That includes raising the minimum wage and eliminating tip taxes for hospitality and service workers.”
Trump responded on social media shortly afterward, posting that Harris “just copied my ZERO TAX TIP policy.”
“The difference is that she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes!” the former president wrote. “This was TRUMP’s idea. She has no ideas, she can only steal them from me.”
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, arrived in Nevada on the final stop of a swing state tour that has seen their party show renewed strength after President Joe Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris. The vice president held a fundraiser Sunday that has raised more than $12 million, according to her campaign. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to be among the event’s speakers.
On Saturday, there were more than 12,000 people at the university basketball stadium, and before the event began, local security forces decided to close the gate to the event because some people felt unwell waiting outside to go through security in 42-degree Celsius (109 Fahrenheit) heat. There were about 4,000 people in line when the gates were closed.
Walz mentioned it during his speech, but turned it into a reason for applause by adding about Nevada: “Don’t be afraid, we will be back many times.”
Harris hoped the trip would help win support among Latino voters. In 2020, Biden narrowly won Nevada over Republican Trump by 2.4 percentage points.
The 60,000-member Kitchen Workers Union announced its support for Harris. About 54 percent of its members are Latino, 55 percent are women and 60 percent are immigrants. The union also issued a statement backing Harris’ plan to raise the minimum wage and “ensure no tip taxes for hospitality and service workers.”
Harris made her pledge to eliminate the tax part of a broader push to strengthen the nation’s middle class, an issue that was central to Biden’s now-cancelled reelection campaign.
AP VoteCast analysis found that 14% of voters in Nevada in 2020 were Hispanic, and Biden won 54% of their votes. His margin with Hispanic voters was slightly larger nationally, a sign that Democrats cannot take that group of voters for granted.
The vice president also promised to “tackle the issue of immigration” and addressed the issue in depth, as she had done the night before at a rally in Arizona.
“We know our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it,” Harris told the crowd at UNLV. She also backed an “earned path to citizenship” for some people in the country illegally and lashed out at Trump, who she said “talks a lot about border security but doesn’t get the job done.”
In recent weeks, the vice president has sought to go on the offensive on an issue that Trump and prominent Republicans have frequently used to criticize her and the Biden administration.
The former president has proposed mass deportations if he returns to the White House, though the 2020 AP VoteCast poll showed nearly 7 in 10 voters in Nevada said immigrants living in the U.S. illegally should have the opportunity to legalize their status.
In recent weeks, Democratic candidates have also visited the crucial traditionally Democratic states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, which represent 61 electoral votes that could be decisive in reaching the threshold of 270 needed to win the election.
___
Weissert and Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
