NSBA's Politics of Small Business provides insight into how America’s small business view politics.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 26, 2022
Contact:
Molly Day
202-552-2904
Washington, D.C. – Today, the National Small Business Association (NSBA) is releasing its biennial survey, The Politics of Small Business, which provides insight into how America’s small business view the political landscape, their opinions of government institutions and how their party affiliations impact their political outlook. Among the key findings: nearly one-in-four small-business owners report changing their political affiliation at some point in the last 10 years.
“Small business isn’t isolated from the growing partisan divide: today, 88 percent of small businesses say politics have become more partisan, up from 82 in 2016,” stated Todd McCracken, NSBA president and CEO. “This partisanship is eroding trust in elected officials, and while locally-elected officials fared slightly better, less than one-in-ten small-business owners said they have a lot of trust in nationally-elected officials.”
New to the survey this year, NSBA asked about voting security and found that just 23 percent of Republicans support voting by mail while 85 percent of Democrats do. Less than half overall believe voting security is a significant problem: broken down by party: 67 percent of Republicans believe it’s a significant problem while just 30 percent of Democrats believe the same.
“Small businesses are exceptionally engaged when it comes to the political process: 95 percent say they vote regularly in national contests and three-quarters say they’ve contacted an elected official,” stated NSBA Chair Mike Stanek of Hunt Imaging, LLC in Berea, Ohio. “This is particularly impactful when you consider that small-business owners’ party affiliations are nearly split in thirds among Republicans, Democrats and Independents. Nobody owns the small-business vote.”
This survey was conducted online among 650 small-business owners from Aug. 22 through Sept. 12, 2022. We hope you find the data in this report useful. Please contact the NSBA media affairs department with questions.
Please click here to download the full report.
Celebrating 85 years in operation, NSBA is a staunchly nonpartisan organization advocating on behalf of America’s entrepreneurs. NSBA's 65,000 members represent every state and every industry in the U.S., and we are proud to be the nation’s first small-business advocacy organization. Please visit www.nsba.biz or @NSBAAdvocate.
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