LAS VEGAS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris promised Saturday to work to get rid of taxes on suggestions paid to restaurant staff and different service workers, echoing a pledge that her opponent in November, Donald Trump, has made, and making a uncommon occasion of political overlap from each side.
Harris made the announcement at a rally on the campus of the College of Nevada, Las Vegas, the place the financial system depends closely on the resort, restaurant and leisure industries. Trump vowed primarily the identical factor at his personal rally within the metropolis in June — although neither he nor Harris are probably to have the ability to totally do this with out actions from Congress.
“It’s my promise to everybody right here that, when I’m president, we’ll proceed our combat for working households of America,” Harris mentioned. “Together with to boost the minimal wage and get rid of taxes on suggestions for service and hospitality staff.”
Trump responded on his social media website a short while later, posting that Harris “simply copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Coverage.”
“The distinction is, she received’t do it, she simply needs it for Political Functions!,” the previous president wrote. “This was a TRUMP concept – She has no concepts, she will be able to solely steal from me.”
Harris and her working mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, got here to Nevada as the ultimate cease of a battleground blitz through which their occasion has proven new power after President Joe Biden exited the race and endorsed Harris. On Sunday, the vp is holding a San Francisco fundraiser that has already raised greater than $12 million, her marketing campaign mentioned, with Home Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi amongst these set to talk.
There have been 12,000-plus individuals contained in the campus basketball enviornment on Saturday and, earlier than the occasion began, native regulation enforcement opted to shut the doorways to the occasion because of individuals changing into sick whereas ready outdoors to undergo safety within the 109-degree warmth. Roughly 4,000 individuals had been in line when the entrances had been shut down.
Walz referenced that in his speech, however turned it into an applause line by including of Nevada, “don’t fear, we’re going to be again so much.”
As a part of the journey, Harris is hoping to construct better assist amongst Latino voters. In 2020, Biden narrowly beat Republican Trump by 2.4 share factors in Nevada. Trump, the previous president, tried to create extra assist in a state that depends on the service business along with his personal, earlier pledge to make staff’ suggestions tax-free.
However the union representing 60,000 staff in that business, the Culinary Staff Union, introduced its endorsement of Harris. About 54% of the union’s members are Latino, 55% ladies and 60% immigrants.
“The trail to victory runs by means of Nevada,” the union mentioned in an announcement, “and the Culinary Union will ship Nevada for President Kamala Harris and Vice President Tim Walz.”
Harris made her promise on eliminating tip taxation as a part of a broader enchantment to strengthen the nation’s center class, seizing on a theme that was a centerpiece of Biden’s now-defunct reelection bid.
“We imagine in a future the place we decrease the price of residing for America’s households so that they have an opportunity, not simply to get by, however to get forward,” she mentioned.
AP VoteCast present in 2020 that 14% of Nevada voters had been Hispanic, with Biden profitable 54% of their votes. His margin with Hispanic voters was barely higher nationwide, an indication that Democrats can’t take this bloc of voters as a right.
“There’s an unimaginable power right here among the many school college students and group members who’re coming collectively to assist and take heed to our subsequent president, Kamala Harris,” mentioned Imer Cespedes-Alvarado, 21. Learning political science at UNLV, Cespedes-Alvarado is a primary era American citizen who spent his childhood in Costa Rica earlier than making the troublesome resolution at 16 to return alone to the U.S. for higher alternatives.
The vp additionally promised to “tackle the problem of immigration,” leaning closely into the problem as she did the earlier night time throughout a rally in Arizona.
“We all know that our immigration system is damaged, and we all know what it takes to repair it,” Harris advised the gang at UNLV. She additionally endorsed an “earned pathway to citizenship” for some individuals within the nation illegally and slammed Trump, who she mentioned “talks a giant recreation about border safety however he doesn’t stroll the stroll.”
The vp has in latest weeks tried to grab the political offensive on a difficulty that Trump and high Republicans have ceaselessly used to slam her and the Biden administration. In doing so, Harris is hoping to drive a wedge with Republicans.
As a result of the vp’s portfolio within the Biden administration included the basis causes of migration, and because of a few of her feedback earlier than the 2020 election, many main GOP voices have sought to painting her as weak on the southern border and enabling unlawful immigration.
Trump himself has mentioned of Harris, “As a border czar, she’s been the worst border czar in historical past, on the earth historical past.”
The previous president proposed mass deportations if he returns to the White Home, however AP VoteCast present in 2020 that just about 7 in 10 Nevada voters mentioned that immigrants residing in the US illegally ought to be supplied the prospect to use for authorized standing.
Nonetheless, coverage apart, most of the rallygoers in Las Vegas mentioned they had been thrilled to see the brand new power Harris and Walz have delivered to the race.
Krista Corridor, 60, and her husband Thaddeus Hager, 58, mentioned they haven’t been extra enthusiastic about an election since President Barack Obama’s marketing campaign in 2008.
“That is as electrical, if no more than,” Corridor mentioned, noting that they attended a number of Obama rallies on the time. Hager mentioned he’s assured that Harris and Walz will “win in a landslide.”
The Democratic ticket over the previous week additionally visited the essential midwestern “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Together with Nevada and Arizona these states signify 61 electoral votes that could possibly be important for reaching the 270 threshold required to win on Election Day.
In Nevada’s rural Douglas County close to the California border, Gail Scott, 71, serves on the central committee of the native Democratic Occasion and mentioned she didn’t initially agree with requires Biden to depart the race. Trump received the county in 2016 and 2020, however trimming his margins there might decrease his potential to compete in Nevada.
Scott mentioned it’s not possible to overlook the power that Harris has created amongst youthful voters who might assist statewide.
“Younger persons are embracing Kamala Harris and the keenness and the enjoyment that she’s delivered to the marketing campaign,” she mentioned.
Brian Shaw, a Republican from northern Nevada, mentioned Harris’ arrival on the highest of the ticket might make it more durable for Trump to win as a result of Biden was a “pitiful candidate” and there’s little time to show the vp’s “incompetence.” He mentioned he attended Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s rally in Reno on July 30 and located him to be “likable, succesful, polished as a politician, however not veneered.”
Weissert and Boak reported from Washington. Related Press author Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.