Harris promises to end taxes on tips for restaurant workers, echoing Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to end taxes on tips for service industry employees, a campaign promise former President Donald Trump also made two months earlier.

Harris made the commitment Saturday night at a rally in Las Vegas, the same city in which Trump introduced the idea to the 2024 presidential campaign at his own rally on June 9.

“It is my promise to everyone here, 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.”

The remark drew cheers from the audience at the Thomas & Mack Center in Nevada’s most populous city, but Trump did not receive it as well. He claimed in a post on Truth Social that Harris “has no ideas, she can only steal from me.”

“Kamala Harris, whose ‘Honeymoon’ period is ENDING, and is starting to get hammered in the Polls, just copied my NO TAXES ON TIPS Policy,” Trump wrote. “The difference is, she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes!”

Both Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), acknowledged the presence of the Nevada-based Culinary Workers Union, which has 60,000 members, at the rally. The union endorsed the Democratic ticket the day before in a statement issued by Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge.

“Kamala has consistently championed our union and hospitality workers,” Pappageorge said. “She stood by us as we negotiated and won the best union contract ever, and we trust her to continue the progress of the Biden/Harris administration by delivering real results that will prioritize and protect working families.”

Nevada is one of six “toss-up” states in the 2024 cycle, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. While its six Electoral College votes make it the least valuable of that group, it is a state Harris and Walz are looking to keep in Democratic hands, as it has been since 2008.

In a five-way race, the most recent poll shows Harris and Trump tied in Nevada at 43%. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drew 7%, followed by Jill Stein of the Green Party at 1% and independent Cornel West at 0%.

“The path to victory runs through Nevada, and the Culinary Union will deliver Nevada for President Kamala Harris and Vice-President Tim Walz,” Pappageorge said.