Las Vegas, August 12 :
In an attempt to win over service workers—an crucial constituency in Nevada—U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris informed her Nevada supporters on August 10 that she favored abolishing taxes on tips, echoing a stance taken by her adversary Donald Trump.Nevada, a western state that could be crucial in the presidential election on November 5th, was the final destination on Harris's and Walz's multi-day tour of battleground states on August 10.
"It is my promise to everyone here when I am president we will continue to fight for working families, including to raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers," he added. As part of her campaign platform, Harris promised to "take on big corporations that engage in illegal price-gouging" and "corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families," in addition to taking on large pharmaceutical companies in an effort to reduce medicine prices for consumers.
Trump accused Harris of appropriating his policy proposal after he stated at a June Las Vegas event that he would work to eliminate tip taxes. On his Truth Social app, Trump lamented that Kamala Harris, whose "Honeymoon" period is coming to an end, had stolen his policy of not taxing tips. "The difference is, she won’t do it, she just wants it for Political Purposes!"
According to a Harris campaign spokesman, her plan necessitates Congressional approval. "As president, she would work with Congress to craft a proposal that comes with an income limit and with strict requirements to prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation in ways to try to take advantage of the policy," according to the source.
This week, Harris formally became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. She has been campaigning alongside Walz in swing states like Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where voters tend to lean Republican or Democratic. A candidate does not have to receive 270 electoral votes to become president; victory in the popular vote is not necessary. The electoral votes of each state are proportional to its population, hence the states that could swing the election are crucial.
Harris will be joining former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a fundraiser in San Francisco, California, on August 11, after her stop in Nevada. Pelosi is also scheduled to attend the event. A campaign official estimated that over $12 million will be raised at the event, which is anticipated to attract around 700 attendees. In an effort to sustain and expand upon the momentum she has created since President Joe Biden resigned as the party's standard-bearer last month, she has endorsed Harris and Walz, whose nomination she revealed in Pennsylvania—another swing state—on Tuesday.
A significant change from polls taken before Biden quit the presidential campaign was the fact that Harris was beating Trump, the Republican former president, by four percentage points in separate surveys conducted in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, another swing state, by both the New York Times and Siena College. In a document issued by the Trump campaign, Tony Fabrizio, the lead pollster, argued against the poll's findings. "Once again, we see a series of public surveys released with the clear intent and purpose of depressing support for President Trump," said Fabrizio.
On a national level, Harris maintained her lead against Trump in a new Ipsos poll released on Thursday, with 42% to 37%. This is a larger margin than in a previous Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted between July 22 and 23, when she had a lead of 37% to 34%. Since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars and rallied thousands of supporters, consistently outdoing Biden's smaller events and angering Trump, for whom the size of the audience has traditionally been a significant indicator of political strength.
According to Harris's campaign, over 12,000 people showed up to the Las Vegas arena on August 10th, but authorities turned away over 4,000 more due to the sickening heat in the state of Nevada. On August 10, the temperature hit 109 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 40 degrees Celsius. Throughout the week, Harris has been comparing herself to Trump. Prior to her departure from Arizona on August 10, she expressed her profound disagreement with the former president about the Federal Reserve. In stark contrast to Trump, who stated on August 8 that presidents should have a role over decisions made by the central bank, she stressed that she would not interfere with the independent Fed if elected president.
