No, Jacky Rosen didn’t say ending taxes on tips would hurt Nevada families

After Nevada Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen co-sponsored a bill to end federal taxes on tips, her Republican opponent for U.S. Senate countered that Rosen’s show of support was disingenuous.

Sam Brown, a former U.S. Army captain hoping to unseat Rosen in the competitive swing state contest this November, said Rosen once described ending taxes on tips as harmful.

Rosen, he wrote in an Aug. 9 X post, "said ending taxes on tips would ‘hurt working Nevada families.’ She couldn't be any more detached."

He made similar statements during interviews Aug. 9 and Aug. 12.

Brown endorsed eliminating taxes on tips after former President Donald Trump first campaigned on the issue June 9 during a rally in Las Vegas. On Aug. 11, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris also endorsed the concept at a Las Vegas rally.

With more than 22% of Nevada’s workforce employed by the service and hospitality industry, the issue is of high interest in this battleground state. Some economists and budget experts  doubt the efficacy or plausibility of ending federal taxes on tips, but the platform has gathered a lot of support.

But did Rosen really call this tax policy potentially harmful for the state’s working families? 

We asked the Brown campaign for evidence of the claim, but received no response. Our review of Rosen’s statements found Brown’s characterization to be wrong and misleading.

Three days after Trump called for the federal tip tax’s repeal, NBC News published a story that quoted Brown calling Trump a "visionary" for focusing on the issue and saying he had also planned to advocate for it.

Also in the story, Brown said Rosen was not championing the issue and Rosen’s campaign spokesperson, Johanna Warshaw, responded. NBC News paraphrased a portion of Warshaw’s comments. 

Here’s how that part of the story read (we have bolded the relevant portion):

Featured Fact-check

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell

stated on August 7, 2024 in an ad

Sen. Rick Scott does not support abortion exceptions.

"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.

"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."

In its full context, the "hurt the working class" paraphrase describes Rosen’s assessment of Brown’s overall tax agenda, not Rosen’s assessment of ending taxes on tips.

Following Trump’s Las Vegas rally, Rosen was one of the first Democratic elected officials to back ending federal taxes on tips, NBC News reported June 21.

She and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., became the lone Democratic co-sponsors of the No Taxes on Tips Act, a bill Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, proposed. 

"Nevada has a higher percentage of tipped workers than any other state, and getting rid of the federal income tax on tips would deliver immediate financial relief for service and hospitality staff across our state who are working harder than ever while getting squeezed by rising costs," Rosen said in a July 12 press release announcing she had joined the Cruz bill.

The Rosen campaign also provided a July 16 letter she wrote to the Senate Finance Committee that urged the committee and Congress to end tip taxes.

Brown said Rosen said a proposal to end federal taxes on tips would "hurt working Nevada families."

We found no evidence of Rosen saying that, nor Brown’s variation it would "hurt working class Nevadans." A Rosen campaign statement included in a June 12 NBC News report described Trump’s promise as "empty talking points," but Rosen also said she supports cutting taxes on tipped workers. 

Rosen publicly supported ending federal taxes on tips days later and, about a month later, signed on to Cruz’s No Taxes on Tips Act.

We rate the claim False.