Kamala Harris vows to raise minimum wage, puts economy as campaign priority

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Saturday called for strengthening the country’s working class and promised at a rally in Las Vegas to raise the minimum wage if she wins the election next November, placing the economy as one of her campaign priorities.

“My promise to everyone here is that when I am president, we will continue our fight for working families,” the vice president said, pledging to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been frozen at $7.25 an hour for nearly 15 years.

She also said she would continue to fight for affordable health care, as well as improvements in employee benefits and child care.

“We will build a broader economy where every American has the opportunity to own their own home, start a business and build wealth,” the Democrat promised before a packed center of more than 18,000 attendees.

Harris arrived in Las Vegas alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, to wrap up a marathon tour of key states, where she seeks to energize her campaign and mobilize thousands of volunteers.

Before the meeting, the vice president assured the press that next week she will announce her political platform, which “will focus on the economy and what we must do to reduce costs and also strengthen it.”

Harris also made it clear that if she were to take office, she would not interfere with the Federal Reserve’s decisions and defended its independence, after former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) suggested last Thursday that US presidents should have a say in the central bank’s decisions.

“This campaign is not about us versus Donald Trump, it is about two different visions for our nation. One, ours, is focused on the future and the other (Trump’s) is focused on the past,” the candidate told the audience, who did not stop applauding her.

The Democrat took the opportunity to attack Trump and the controversial Project 2025, an ultra-right-wing manual for his second term, which proposes eliminating several departments and agencies such as Education and Social Security.

“I can’t believe they put it in writing… if he’s elected, he wants to eliminate public health and try to give up on the fight against the climate crisis,” Harris warned.

Nevada is a so-called “swing” state that has swung Democratic since 2008, when former President Barack Obama (2009-2017) won the state comfortably, something that cost President Joe Biden in 2020 when he won by about 34,000 votes, or 2.4 percentage points.

Trump has upped his game in the state. At a rally in Las Vegas last June, he pledged to make workers’ tips tax-free.

But the former president failed to convince the powerful Culinary Workers Union, which groups 60,000 employees of Las Vegas hotels (most of them migrant women), which on Friday gave its support to the Democratic ticket.

“Kamala (Harris) has consistently stood up for our union and hospitality workers… we are confident she will continue to deliver real results that will prioritize and protect working families,” the union said in a statement.

The union added that the road to the White House “lies through Nevada” and that it will ensure that Harris wins in that state by mobilizing thousands of volunteers. Today, the candidate equaled Trump and promised that if elected, she will eliminate federal taxes on tips.

Harris’s arrival in the presidential race appears to have tipped the balance in Nevada’s favor for Democrats. A Morning Consult poll last May gave Trump a three-point lead, but a survey earlier this month gave the Democrat a two-point lead.

Harris is scheduled to meet in San Francisco, California, her political home, on Sunday, where she hopes to gain more support for her young campaign almost 80 days before the election.

(PHOTO: EFE)