Trump 'scooped' the Nevada GOP Senate nominee on proposing to get rid of taxes on tips

Amid talk of electrocutions and sharks at a scorching outdoor Las Vegas rally over the weekend, former President Donald Trump tucked in a new policy announcement with significant implications in a state with a massive service industry: get rid of taxes on tips. 

Some Democrats were quick to dismiss it as a wild, unattainable Trump promise. And the powerful Culinary Workers Union, which represents tens of thousands of hospitality and hotel workers, described the former president as a “Johnny come lately” to a fight that’s been ongoing for decades.

But it appears Trump picked at an issue that could quickly resonate in a high-profile Senate race that’s kicking into gear in the battleground state. 

Sam Brown — who clinched the Republican nomination Tuesday and will take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen — said in an interview that he had planned to unveil the same proposal during his general election campaign, until Trump “scooped” him.

“That was actually a policy idea that my team had sort of developed and we were planning to roll out in the general election,” Brown told NBC News. “So in some sense, President Trump scooped us and beat us to it. But that’s something we’re fully behind. Those tips are not guaranteed income, people work hard for it.”

Brown, who also called Trump a “visionary” for keying into the issue, attacked Democrats more broadly on the economy, one of the issues Republicans believe will be most potent in Nevada. In Las Vegas, leisure and hospitality employment makes up more than a quarter of the jobs. 

“In states like this where we have a strong service-based economy, it makes a lot of sense,” Brown said of the no-taxes-on-tips proposal. “And I wonder why Jacky Rosen hasn’t brought this up and isn’t a champion on it.”

Rosen’s campaign spokesperson Johanna Warshaw hit back at Brown, casting the promise as a distraction from what the campaign characterized as a tax agenda that would hurt the working class.

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“Nevada workers know they can’t trust empty talking points from self-serving politicians like Sam Brown trying to cover up their actual agenda of giving away more tax breaks to billionaires and corporate special interests,” Warshaw said in a statement. “Jacky Rosen supports cutting taxes for tipped workers and all hardworking Nevadans, and that’s why she’s been fighting for years to deliver tax relief and pass a broad-based middle class tax cut while also lowering costs and raising the minimum wage.”

The back-and-forth unfolded as what's anticipated to be one of the most competitive races in the country was officially underway after Tuesday's primary election in which Brown won the Republican nomination in a crowded field. Early polling has shown President Joe Biden struggling in Nevada and Rosen narrowly leading Brown in a hypothetical matchup.

Brown secured Trump's endorsement in the primary at his weekend rally in the state.

Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union — which has aligned with Democrats — said Rosen and the rest of the Nevada delegation have been intimately involved in talks with the IRS in trying to keep a check on tax rates against tip earners.

“The question is, who’s actually been supporting the workers and fighting back for years and years and years?” Pappageorge said. “It certainly hasn’t been President Trump and these Republicans, who are missing in action.” 

Pappageorge panned Trump’s promise as an empty one, saying that courts have ruled tips are income but the battle has been over taxing tip earners in a fair way. He criticized Trump for never taking action during his four years as president but also acknowledged movement hasn’t happened under the Biden administration either. 

“This is an issue that we have been pushing back on with our Nevada delegation. It’s a Nevada issue, OK?” he said. He noted the late Democratic Sen. Harry Reid “had our backs on this issue. … Sen. Cortez Masto, Sen. Rosen and also Congressman [Steven] Horsford have been extremely active in pushing back. And there’s more work to be done.”

Trump’s campaign didn’t offer specifics on the proposal other than to say, “President Trump will ask Congress to eliminate taxes on tips,” according to spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. “Joe Biden has aggressively stepped up the IRS going after tip workers.” 

Last year, the IRS announced a program to encourage voluntary compliance on tip reporting, something Republicans were quick to criticize. The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment on a no-taxes-on-tips proposal.