By Nicholas Nehamas, Reid J. Epstein and Kellen Browning
Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that she would seek to end federal income taxes on tips if she were elected president, mirroring a policy proposal that former President Donald Trump made earlier this year.
The proposal from Harris — which she announced in Las Vegas, where thousands of casino employees depend on tipped wages — is a priority of Nevada’s influential Culinary Workers Union. Both Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, recognized the union in their remarks to a packed basketball arena Saturday night.
“When I am president,” Harris told the Las Vegas crowd, “we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.”
The “no tax on tips” pitch has garnered bipartisan support since Trump first floated it in June, including from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and both of Nevada’s Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen. Trump also announced his support for the policy in Las Vegas.
Trump responded immediately to Harris’ proposal Saturday night, posting on his social media website, Truth Social, that she had “copied” his own. “This was a TRUMP idea,” he wrote. “She has no ideas, she can only steal them from me.”
The Las Vegas stop was the last public event of a five-city introduction of the Harris-Walz ticket. As with the other rallies, Harris and Walz drew a crowd many times larger than any that had shown up for President Joe Biden while he was seeking reelection.
By Saturday, there were signs that some of the Democrats’ good vibes may have an expiration date. The Harris campaign said Walz “misspoke” when he said he had carried weapons of war “in war” in a video articulating his views on gun control. And Harris, before her event in Las Vegas, answered several questions from reporters for the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee — a development that took place after pressure from Trump and his campaign.
But overall, the week’s rollout was widely viewed as a success. Harris has engendered more enthusiasm than any Democratic nominee since Barack Obama in 2008. The appointment of Walz as her running mate took place without any significant grumbling from the party — a bit of a surprise after a two-week vice presidential audition that surfaced ideological divisions in the party, particularly over the Israel-Hamas war.
On Saturday, Walz urged the crowd at the arena on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — which the campaign said included more than 12,000 people — not only to vote for the Democratic ticket but also to work to ensure their friends and neighbors did, too.
“I know very clearly that I am preaching to the choir,” Walz said. “But here’s my words for you: The choir needs to sing. The choir needs to sing.”
During stops in Philadelphia, Wisconsin, Detroit and Arizona, Harris and Walz spoke to capacity crowds. By the end of the week, the high points in their stump speeches had become familiar enough to audiences that people in the crowd shouted them along with the candidates. All told, the new running mates drew more than 64,000 attendees to their rallies, according to estimates from the campaign.
“Aren’t they a breath of fresh air?” Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., asked attendees in Las Vegas.
Biden had trailed Trump badly in Nevada, where inflation is a top concern for many voters. But Harris has tightened that gap significantly since Biden dropped out.
On Friday, the vice president secured the backing of the Culinary Workers Union, an endorsement that will likely add to her campaign’s organizing operation and eventual voter turnout.
The culinary union is a 60,000-member organization that represents casino and hotel workers and has been a key part of the coalition that has helped Democrats win in Nevada.
Mariana Swanson, a culinary union member who worked as a restroom attendant at a Las Vegas nightclub where she depended on tips, said Harris’ announcement came as a “shock,” though a welcome one.
“It’s more money for taking care of your family,” said Swanson, 43, a Democrat and one of many attendees wearing a red culinary union T-shirt. “It’s more money for paying your bills.”
With her promises to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips, Harris seemed to preview the planned release of her policy platform next week. She had told reporters earlier Saturday that the platform would focus on the economy and lowering costs for working families.
In addition to rank-and-file Democrats, wealthy donors are also responding to the new ticket. On Sunday, Harris was scheduled to attend a fundraiser in San Francisco that drew more than $12 million in contributions, her campaign said.
Harris’ crowd in Las Vegas would have been larger than it was, but law enforcement officials closed the doors as people fell ill while waiting outside the arena in temperatures that reached 109 degrees. Roughly 4,000 people were in line at that point and had to be turned away, the Harris campaign said.
“Don’t worry,” a hoarse-voiced Walz promised those who had made it inside. “We’re going to be back a lot.”
Before the rally began, thousands of attendees stood and danced in their seats waving Harris-Walz signs, as disco remixes, hip-hop and Latin pop blared over the speakers and the arena’s lights flashed in multicolored rhythm.
“We’ve got a party up in here,” D-Nice, a DJ and the event’s emcee, shouted to roars of approval. “Let’s light this place up.”
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