LAS VEGAS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris vowed Saturday that, if elected, she’d eliminate federal taxes on tips paid to restaurant workers and scores of other service employees, echoing a pledge that her opponent in November, Donald Trump, has made in a rare moment 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 made a similar promise 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, when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families,” Harris said, pledging to raise the minimum wage and “eliminate tips for service and hospitality workers.”
The Democratic presidential nominee and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. 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 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 and, before the event started, 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.
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, Harris is hoping to build greater support among Latino voters. In 2020, Biden narrowly beat Republican Trump by 2.4 percentage points in Nevada. Trump, the former president, tried to create more support in a state that relies on the service industry with his own, previous pledge to make workers’ tips tax-free.
But the union representing 60,000 workers in that industry, the Culinary Workers Union, announced Friday night its endorsement of Harris. About 54% of the union’s members are Latino, 55% women and 60% immigrants.
“The path to victory runs through Nevada,” the union said in a statement, “and the Culinary Union will deliver Nevada for President Kamala Harris and Vice President Tim Walz.”
Also, Adelante PAC, the political arm of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights group, League of United Latin American Citizens, endorsed Harris. That was a first for the 95-year-old LULAC, which has in the past steered away from formally throwing its support behind political candidates.
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.
Harris is hoping to drive a wedge with Republicans by focusing on issues such as access to abortion and repairs to the U.S. immigration system. Her message is that Trump killed a bipartisan deal this year to improve security on the southern border and address immigration issues, with Democrats saying he did so in hopes of improving his own political odds.
Because Harris’ portfolio in the Biden administration included the root causes of migration and due to some of her comments before the 2020 election, Republicans have sought to portray her as weak on the southern border and enabling illegal immigration.
Trump has said of Harris, “As a border czar, she’s been the worst border czar in history, in the world history.”
He’s 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.
Krista Hall, 60, and her husband Thaddeus Hager, 58, attended Harris’ Las Vegas rally and said that they haven’t been more excited about an election since President 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 has also visited the crucial midwestern “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Along with Nevada and Arizona. Those five states represent 61 electoral votes that could be essential for reaching the 270 threshold required to win November’s election.
Harris and Walz had also planned to visit North Carolina and Georgia this past week — between them another 32 electoral votes — but those stops were postponed due to Tropical Storm Debby.
In Nevada’s rural Douglas County near the California border, Gail Scott, 71, serves on the central committee of the local Democratic Party and said she didn’t initially agree with calls for Biden to leave the race. Trump won the county in 2016 and 2020, but trimming his margins there could lower his ability to compete in Nevada.
Scott said it’s impossible to miss the energy that Harris has created among younger voters who could help statewide.
“Young people are embracing Kamala Harris and the enthusiasm and the joy that she’s brought to the campaign,” she said.
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.
