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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris promised Saturday to work to eliminate taxes on tips paid to restaurant and other service industry employees, echoing a pledge that her opponent, Republican Donald Trump, has made, and marking a rare instance of political overlap from both sides.
Harris made the announcement at a rally on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where the economy relies heavily on the hotel, restaurant and entertainment industries. Trump vowed essentially the same thing at his own rally in the city in June — though neither he nor 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,” Harris said. “Including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.”
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.”
Harris' campaign said afterward that as president she would work with Congress to draft a proposal that includes an income limit and other provisions to keep hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation to try to take advantage of the policy. She also would push for the proposal alongside one to increase the federal minimum wage.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, came to Nevada as the final stop of a five battleground-state blitz in which their party has shown new energy after President Joe Biden exited the race and endorsed Harris. On Sunday, the vice president is holding a San Francisco fundraiser that has already raised more than $12 million, her campaign said, with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi among those set to speak.
There were 12,000-plus people inside the campus basketball arena on Saturday and, before the event started, local law enforcement halted entry to the event because people were becoming ill while waiting outside in 109-degree heat to go through security. About 4,000 people were in line when the entrances were closed.
Walz referenced that during his speech, but turned it into an applause line by telling Nevada, "don’t worry, we’re going to be back a lot.”
As part of the trip, Harris is hoping to build greater support among Latino voters. In 2020, Biden narrowly defeated Trump by 2.4 percentage points in Nevada.
The 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union announced its endorsement of Harris. About 54% of the union's members are Latino, 55% women and 60% immigrants. The union also issued a statement supporting Harris' call for a higher minimum wage and to “ensure that there are no taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.”
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 centerpiece of Biden's now-defunct reelection 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 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.
“There’s an incredible energy here among the college students and community members who are coming together to support and listen to our next president, Kamala Harris,” said Imer Cespedes-Alvarado, 21. Studying political science at UNLV, Cespedes-Alvarado is a first generation American citizen who spent his childhood in Costa Rica before making the difficult decision at 16 to return alone to the U.S. for better opportunities.
The vice president also promised to tackle 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," Harris said in Las Vegas. She also endorsed an “earned pathway to citizenship” for some people in the country illegally and slammed 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 Trump and top Republicans have frequently used to slam her and the Biden administration. In doing so, 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 GOP voices have sought to portray her as weak on the southern border and enabling illegal immigration.
Trump himself has said of 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.
Still, policy aside, many of the rallygoers in Las Vegas said they were thrilled to see the new energy Harris and Walz have brought to the race.
Krista Hall, 60, and her husband Thaddeus Hager, 58, said they haven’t been more excited about an election since Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008.
“This is as electric, if not more than,” Hall said, noting that they attended several Obama rallies at the time. Hager said he’s confident that Harris and Walz will “win in a landslide.”
The Democratic ticket over the past week also visited the crucial midwestern “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Along with Nevada and Arizona those states represent 61 electoral votes that could be essential for reaching the 270 threshold required to win on Election Day.
Brian Shaw, a Republican from northern Nevada, said Harris’ arrival on the top of the ticket could make it harder for Trump to win because Biden was a “pitiful candidate” and there’s little time to expose the vice president’s “incompetence.” He said he attended Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s rally in Reno on July 30 and found him to be “likable, capable, polished as a politician, but not veneered.”
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Weissert and Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.