A vulnerable swing state Senate Democrat endorsed one of former president Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises on Thursday after previously dismissing the idea. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.) co-sponsored a Republican bill on Thursday that would eliminate the income tax on cash tips, throwing her legislative might behind a policy that has become a focal […]
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A vulnerable swing state Senate Democrat endorsed one of former president Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises on Thursday after previously dismissing the idea.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.) co-sponsored a Republican bill on Thursday that would eliminate the income tax on cash tips, throwing her legislative might behind a policy that has become a focal point of Trump’s campaign to return to the White House. Rosen was joined by her Democratic colleague, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), in endorsing the bill on Thursday, which was first introduced in June by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas).
Rosen’s endorsement of the bill comes just weeks after her campaign denounced Trump’s no-tax-on-tips proposal as a distraction after he unveiled it at a June 9 Las Vegas rally alongside Rosen’s Republican opponent, Army veteran Sam Brown. Brown hailed Trump as a "visionary" for championing the issue, prompting the Rosen campaign to criticize the plan days later as a shameless political move to provide cover for his desire to cut taxes for the wealthy.
"Nevada workers know they can’t trust empty talking points from self-serving politicians like Sam Brown trying to cover up their actual agenda of giving away more tax breaks to billionaires and corporate special interests," Rosen campaign spokeswoman Johanna Warshaw told NBC News on June 12.
But early signs indicated that the policy is a winning issue in Nevada, where an estimated one in five workers are in the tip-dependent leisure and hospitality industries. Mainstream media reporters such as CBS News’s Olivia Rinalid didn’t have to search far for supporters of Trump’s proposal. Rinaldi said she spoke with six hotel workers who said they would be switching their votes from Democrat to Republican the evening the former president unveiled his no-tax-on-tips plan.
A Rosen campaign spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that the Nevada Democrat has always supported "cutting taxes for tipped workers and all hardworking Nevadans." The spokesperson linked to a June 10 story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal that reported Rosen supported tax cuts for tipped workers via a "broad-based middle class tax cut," but the story did not say if the Nevada Democrat supported a wholesale elimination of income taxes on tips—which her campaign previously derided.
Rosen stressed the bill was "bipartisan" in a statement Friday afternoon. The bill was an exclusively Republican endeavor until Thursday when Rosen and Cortez Masto signed onto the proposal.
Brown told the Free Beacon that he welcomed Rosen’s endorsement of the plan, but said it was "too little, too late."
"I'm pleased to see that Jacky Rosen is finally supporting a solution for working families, an idea championed by President Trump and me," Brown said. "Nevada workers deserve to keep more of their hard-earned money, and our plan to end taxes on tips will do just that. Nevadans won't forget that Jacky Rosen had nearly 8 years to address this issue and did nothing."
National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Maggie Abboud offered a blunt assessment of Rosen’s endorsement.
"Jacky Rosen is a spineless, flip-flopping politician who is desperate to save her political career," said Abboud. "Nobody believes Rosen, whose main job in Washington is rubberstamping Joe Biden's disastrous agenda, would help President Trump pass this bill."
Rosen isn’t the only powerful Nevadan to flip-flop on the issue. The Culinary Union, considered the most influential union in the state, wasted no time denouncing Trump’s no-tax-on-tips plan after he first unveiled it in June.
"Relief is definitely needed for tip earners, but Nevada workers are smart enough to know the difference between real solutions and wild campaign promises from a convicted felon," Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge said in a June 10 statement, CBS News reported.
Pappageorge and the Culinary Union had a sudden change of heart after learning of Rosen’s endorsement of the measure. Pappageorge issued a statement Friday evening applauding Rosen and Cortez Masto for spearheading "real solutions" to give a leg up to hospitality workers.
Notably absent from the Culinary Union’s statement was any mention of Trump or the Republican Senators that introduced the bill in June.
Rosen’s endorsement of Trump’s no-tax-on-tips just weeks after her campaign attacked the proposal is the latest in a long string of policy flip-flops ranging from her stances on COVID lockdowns, the southern border, corporate landlords, and lobbying reform that could plague her reelection campaign as November approaches.
Rosen’s reelection effort will also have to grapple with the ongoing fallout from President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June. Trump now has a distinct edge over Biden in the state, with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifting its rating of the Nevada presidential race from "Toss Up" to "Lean Republican" on Tuesday.
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