Jeff Mason
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told supporters in Nevada on Saturday that she supports eliminating a tip tax, taking a similar stance to rival Donald Trump’s push for Service workers, an important constituency in the state.
Harris and her Democratic running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, ended a multi-day tour of battleground states on Saturday with a stop in Nevada, a western state that could play a role in the Nov. 5 presidential election key role.
“When I became president, I promised everyone here that we would continue to fight for working families, including raising the minimum wage and eliminating the tip tax for service and hotel workers,” Harris said.
Harris said she would work to keep consumer prices down and vowed to “crack down on illegal price gougers” — corporate landlords who unfairly raise rents on working families — and Big Pharma to lower drug prices.
Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas in June that he would seek to end taxes on tip income.
Harris, who officially became the Democratic presidential nominee this week, has been campaigning with Walz in Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona, states that traditionally favor Republicans and Democrats in presidential elections.
To become president, a candidate does not need to win the national popular vote, but must win 270 electoral votes. Each state has a certain number of electoral votes based on its population, making swing states especially important.
She will travel to her hometown of San Francisco, California, on Sunday to attend a fundraiser with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Nearly 700 people are expected to attend the event, which is expected to raise more than $12 million, a campaign official said.
She announced Harris and Walz on Tuesday in another swing state, Pennsylvania, as they seek to maintain and build on the momentum she has generated since President Joe Biden resigned as the party’s standard-bearer last month.
Separate New York Times/Siena College polls in Wisconsin, Michigan and another swing state, Pennsylvania, put Harris ahead of Republican former President Trump by four percentage points, conducted before Biden resigned as president. There are significant differences by race in the polls.
The Trump campaign released a memo from chief pollster Tony Fabrizio refuting the results. “Once again we are seeing the release of a series of public investigations with the express intent and purpose of suppressing support for President Trump,” Fabrizio said.
Nationally, Harris leads Trump by five points, 42% to 37%, in an Ipsos poll released on Thursday, compared with the July 22-23 Reuters/Ipsos poll. , Harris’ lead widened further, with the survey finding her approval rating rose 37% to 34%.
Since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and held rallies with thousands of supporters, often eclipsing smaller events held by Biden and drawing the ire of Trump, who , crowd size has always been an important barometer of political strength.
The Harris campaign said more than 12,000 people were inside the Las Vegas arena on Saturday, and police turned away about 4,000 people because sweltering conditions in Nevada, where temperatures reached 109 degrees, made people in line sick. (40 degrees Celsius) ) Saturday.
Harris spent the week contrasting herself with Trump. Before leaving Arizona on Saturday, she said she strongly disagreed with the former president’s views on the Fed.
She said that if elected president, she would not interfere with the independent Federal Reserve, in sharp contrast to Trump, who said on Thursday that the president should have a say in the Fed’s decision-making.
