Vice President Kamala Harris is on the road again in May, crisscrossing the country promoting the Biden-Harris Administration’s work on behalf of small and minority-owned businesses. Her 2024 Economic Opportunity Tour recently kicked off with events in Atlanta and Detroit, and will highlight the administration’s historic investments that support underserved communities and help everyday Americans thrive.

Harris’ efforts are not only tools to raise awareness among entrepreneurs and small business owners, but are also critical outreach to key voting blocs, specifically Black men, in advance of the November general election. She spoke of this recently on the Atlanta-based Earn Your Leisure podcast in advance of her launch event: 

“One of the compelling reasons for me to start this tour now is to ask all the leaders here for help, and getting the word out about what is available to entrepreneurs, because we are in the process of putting a lot of money in the streets of America.”

During Harris’ appearance at the Georgia International Convention Center on April 29, she addressed the administration’s ongoing investments in strengthening communities, championing a $158 million grant for The Stitch, an infrastructure project to reconnect Black communities in Atlanta that were cut off from the city’s downtown by highway construction in the 1950s and 60s. Additionally, Harris drew attention to numerous positive performance indicators including the lowest Black unemployment on record, the historically low gap between Black and white employment, the fastest growth rate of Black-owned small businesses in three decades, and significant increases in Black household wealth when compared to the pre-COVID era.

Alongside the Vice President’s Atlanta appearance, the Biden-Harris Administration released the Building on the Biden-Harris Small Business Boom report, outlining the following:

• Over $178 billion – representing more than 28% of federal contract spending – in Federal Procurement Dollars were awarded to small businesses in Fiscal Year 2023
• The SBA is on pace to nearly double the number of small dollar loans to small businesses in Fiscal Year 2024 as a direct result of Biden-Harris Administration policies
• Through the American Rescue Plan’s State Small Business Credit Initiative, the U.S. Treasury has approved over $8 billion in capital support for small businesses
• SBA is additionally on track to deliver more than $250 billion to more than 500,000 small businesses through its lending programs by 2030, a specific commitment of the Biden-Harris Administration

While in the Atlanta area VP Harris also visited the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs with Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, where they convened meetings and conversations with small business owners to highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to nurture an economy that works for all Americans, specifically small and minority-owned businesses.

In the second stop of her tour, Harris returned to the battle ground state of Michigan on May 6 for meetings and conversations with local leaders and small business owners. During public remarks at the Charles H. Wright African American Museum, where she was joined by U.S. Energy Secretary and former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, the Vice President announced two key initiatives that will impact small business owners in Michigan–the Department of Energy’s grant of $100 million in funding for small and medium-sized auto supply companies as they adapt their businesses to electric vehicles, and the launch of a new program that will match government-backed loans of $250,000 to $10 million dollars with private equity funds.

Harris previously visited Michigan in February to host a roundtable discussion in Grand Rapids as part of her ongoing, nationwide Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour that focuses on Republican efforts to restrict and roll back women’s access to comprehensive healthcare. 

The Vice President’s appearances continued this week as she hosts another Economic Opportunity Tour event today in Milwaukee, marking her fourth visit to Wisconsin since the first of the year. President Joe Biden recently visited Racine, where he touted a massive increase in the scope of Microsoft’s data center in Mount Pleasant, a striking contrast to the failed Foxconn project supported by the GOP front runner.

Harris’ 2024 Economic Opportunity Tour builds upon the success of the Economic Opportunity Coalition she launched in 2022, a first-of-its-kind public/private sector partnership that has already deployed over $1 billion into community finance institutions. It represents a commitment to small and minority-owned businesses that echoes key elements of her 2020 Presidential campaign.

In addition to her significant responsibilities in D.C., the Vice President has been continually in motion in 2024, making more than 35 trips to 16 states–including a tour of HBCU campuses and a trip to Black Wall Street in Durham, NC to announce $32 minion in funding for entrepreneurs from historically underserved communities–as well as representing U.S. interests in several prominent international appearances (click here to read RadLove’s profile of her whirlwind January and February!) 

As campaign season gets into full swing and the election draws closer, we look forward to VP Harris amplifying the administration’s consistent focus on creating new and enhanced opportunities for working people in this country to succeed.

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Christopher Brush

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