Harris is working hard to court small business owners as some have never heard of a key proposal

Harris has made appealing to small businesses a key part of her economic plan.

Ashley Storck, the 26-year-old founder of a digital marketing firm in Madison, Wisconsin, is part of nearly a dozen professional organizations. Only one of them, she said, reached out to inform her about Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposal to increase the small business tax deduction tenfold.

Storck considers herself very engaged in Democratic politics — she’s been to the White House and introduced President Joe Biden at an event about student loan forgiveness — but she doubts that many entrepreneurs in her critical battleground state know about Harris’ small business policies.

With the economy as the driving issue this election, Harris has introduced a slate of policies targeted toward entrepreneurs, including her plan to expand the small business tax deduction from its current $5,000 to $50,000. Under the proposed legislation, new entrepreneurs could take advantage of the $50,000 deduction right away or a few years after launching, to help lower taxes once they start turning a profit.

Rhett Buttle, the co-executive director of Small Business Roundtable and a former business advisor for Biden, previously told B-17 that the expanded deduction would be particularly helpful for women and people of color who have a harder time accessing capital. But B-17 spoke to five female entrepreneurs, all of whom said many people aren’t aware that the proposal even exists.

Neither Hama Hinnawi, 46, nor Patricia Oswald, 55, had heard of Harris’ pitch before speaking to B-17. Owners of a fashion brand and company that sells powered drying racks respectively, they are both members of the Women’s Business Development Center and doubted many of their peers are aware, either. Hinnawi even said she called the company that deals with her tax returns to see if any of them knew about it — they didn’t.

“There isn’t one place that you can go to learn all this stuff about small businesses,” Hinnawi told B-17. Oswald thinks that small business advocacy organizations and financial institutions that provide loans should send the word out about candidates’ proposals.

Anne Zimmerman, 71, co-founded one such organization, Small Business for America’s Future, in addition to her Ohio-based accounting firm for small businesses. She said that there’s not enough news coverage of specific proposals for current and aspiring entrepreneurs, whom the proposal would help.

“You’ve got to drill down and find it yourself,” she told B-17 about the legislative details. The entrepreneurs she advises are hungry for policies that directly impact their operations, but Zimmerman said most don’t read past the headlines to learn about the specifics.

Given her political involvement, Storck trusts that she would have learned of Harris’ proposal eventually. But she worries that the same doesn’t go for everyone else in her state and wishes campaigns would reach out to key community stakeholders, like chambers of commerce.

“Especially in rural Wisconsin and with those small businesses that aren’t as politically engaged, it’s 100% possible that they’re not being sent this information or even aware that this is a policy she’s proposing,” Storck told B-17. Harris is struggling with rural voters in Wisconsin and the other Blue Wall battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania.

And in deep-blue Chicago, Taylor McCleneghan, 36, had heard of Harris’ plans, but generally doesn’t think there’s enough educational outreach about the tax rules for small business owners. McCleneghan, who owns a product development company, is a member of multiple small business advisory groups and considers herself relatively well-informed. Still, she struggles to understand the thicket of financial questions entrepreneurs face.

“Navigating tax implications for starting a business when you don’t have any family or friends who are entrepreneurs or you’re starting completely self-funded with very little — that literacy is still a major hole,” she said.

McCleneghan is a lifelong Democrat, but she has family members who are entrepreneurs and support Trump. All, she said, could benefit from knowing more about what politicians are offering by way of support.

“I think all, regardless of size or regardless of political leaning, have leaned on government services to get their business going,” she said.

Whether the target audience knows about Harris’ promise or not, it remains just that — a promise. Should she win the election, Congress would need to pass legislation to turn her expanded tax deduction idea into a reality. Despite the prevailing congressional gridlock, four tax and small business experts that B-17 previously spoke with said local entrepreneurship is a rare point of potential bipartisan agreement.

“I’m not a political economist, but I think it is very hard for a traditional, small C conservative Republican to go back to their home district and say, ‘I voted against things that will help you open a business,'” Mary Hansen, an economics professor at American University, said.