OLYMPIA, Wash., July 28, 2014— Washington state U.S. Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dave Reichert were endorsed for re-election by the association representing one of the state and nation’s most potent voting blocs: Small-business owners.
“We support the candidates who support small business, and Reps. Herrera Beutler, McMorris Rodgers and Reichert have stellar, 100-percent voting records for Main Street this Congress,” said Patrick Connor, Washington state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, America’s Voice of Small Business. “It bears reminding everyone that small businesses employ the majority of working Americans, generate almost all new jobs, but have distinctly different difficulties in remaining solvent than big businesses do.”
The endorsements for the re-election of Herrera Beutler (3rd District), McMorris Rodgers (5th District) and Reichert (8th District) were made by NFIB’s SAFE (Save America’s Free Enterprise) Trust, the association’s political action committee, and are based on positions regarding key small-business issues so far in this Congress, such as health care, taxes, and labor and regulations.
Brief, single-pages of bulleted information on the power of the small-business vote, what a small business is and the distinctions it has from a big business can be found here.
America’s largest small-business association, the National Federation of Independent Business has more than 8,000 dues-paying members in Washington state. “Small businesses significantly impact Washington’s economy,” reports the Office of Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration. “They represent 98.1 percent of all employers and employ 53.7 percent of the private-sector labor force. Small businesses are crucial to the fiscal condition of the state and numbered 546,855 in 2010. Most of Washington’s small businesses have fewer than 20 employees.”
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/Washington
711 Capitol Way South, Suite 505
Olympia, WA 98501
Twitter: @NFIB_WA
