Harris echoes Trump vow to work to end taxes on tips for service employees

Vice President Kamala Harris promised on Saturday to work to eliminate taxes on tips paid to restaurant workers and other service employees.

The vow echoes a pledge that her opponent in November, Donald Trump, has made, creating a rare instance of political overlap from both sides.

Ms Harris made the announcement at a rally on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) where the economy relies heavily on the hotel, restaurant and entertainment industries.

Mr Trump vowed essentially the same thing at his own rally in the city in June — though neither he nor Ms Harris are likely to be able to fully do that without actions from Congress.

“It is my promise to everyone here that, when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America,” Ms Harris said.

“Including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.”

Mr Trump responded on his social media site a short time later, posting that Harris “just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy”.

“The difference is, she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes!,” the former president wrote. “This was a TRUMP idea – She has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”

Ms Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, came to Nevada as the final stop of a battleground blitz in which their party has shown new energy after President Joe Biden exited the race and endorsed Ms Harris.

There were 12,000-plus people inside the campus basketball arena on Saturday and, before the event started, local law enforcement opted to close the doors to the event due to people becoming ill while waiting outside to go through security in the 109-degree heat.

Approximately 4,000 people were in line when the entrances were shut down.

Mr Walz referenced that during his speech, but turned it into an applause line by adding of Nevada: “Don’t worry, we’re going to be back a lot.”

As part of the trip, Ms Harris is hoping to build greater support among Latino voters. In 2020, Mr Biden narrowly beat Republican Mr Trump by 2.4 percentage points in Nevada.

The 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union announced its endorsement of Ms Harris.

About 54% of the union’s members are Latino, 55% women and 60% immigrants. The union also issued a statement throwing its support behind Ms Harris’ call to raise the minimum wage and “ensure that there are no taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers”.

Ms Harris made her promise on eliminating tip taxation as part of a broader appeal to strengthen the nation’s middle class, seizing on a theme that was a centrepiece of Mr Biden’s now-defunct re-election bid.

“We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America’s families so they have a chance, not just to get by, but to get ahead,” she said.

AP VoteCast found in 2020 that 14% of Nevada voters were Hispanic, with Mr Biden winning 54% of their votes. His margin with Hispanic voters was slightly better nationwide, a sign that Democrats cannot take this bloc of voters for granted.

The vice president also promised to “address the issue of immigration”, leaning heavily into the issue as she did the previous night during a rally in Arizona.

“We know that our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it,” Ms Harris told the crowd at UNLV. She also endorsed an “earned pathway to citizenship” for some people in the country illegally and slammed Mr Trump, who she said “talks a big game about border security but he does not walk the walk”.

The vice president has in recent weeks tried to seize the political offensive on an issue that Mr Trump and top Republicans have frequently used to slam her and the Biden administration. In doing so, Ms Harris is hoping to drive a wedge with Republicans.

Because the vice president’s portfolio in the Biden administration included the root causes of migration, and due to some of her comments before the 2020 election, many leading Republican voices have sought to portray her as weak on the southern border and enabling illegal immigration.

Mr Trump himself has said of Ms Harris: “As a border czar, she’s been the worst border czar in history, in the world history.”

The former president proposed mass deportations if he returns to the White House, but AP VoteCast found in 2020 that nearly 7 in 10 Nevada voters said that immigrants living in the United States illegally should be offered the chance to apply for legal status.