In New Hampshire visit, Kamala Harris pledges small businesses help in first term

Vice President Kamala Harris used her first visit to New Hampshire in her presidential campaign to take dramatic steps to increase tax credits with the goal of delivering millions of new small business applications, building on the considerable success of the Biden administration.

“We’re going to help more small businesses and innovators get off the ground… on average, it costs about $40,000 to start a new business in America. That is a great financial barrier for a lot of folks, and it can hold entrepreneurs back,” Harris said.

Speaking to a crowd of over 3000 at Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, a woman-owned business that was able to open their current location thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s credit initiative for small businesses in the American Rescue Plan, Harris pitched expanding the effort.

The core of the Harris campaign’s plan would involve a 10-fold increase in the value of the tax deduction small business owners can take for their startup expenses, increasing the existing deduction from $5,000 currently to $50,000.

Co-founders of Throwback Brewery Annette Lee and Nicole Carrier introduced Harris, saying many aspects of their business were only possible because of several varying aspects of the Biden-Harris administrations moves to support small businesses in the United States

The owners said this was the first time they had engaged in a public political capacity, with the stakes being too great to stay silent.

“As a small business, we’ve never —I mean, we’ve never, ever — stepped out into the political arena. But at this point, we kind of figured, do we have a choice?” asked Carrier, saying the stark choice between Harris and Trump provided New Hampshire voters two distinct visions for the future of the country and the state.

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“Her proposal to cut red tape will make it easier for Throwback Brewery and small businesses like ours to grow and hire more workers. She’ll make it easier for more dreams to become a reality.”

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken credit for the creation of a record 19 million new successful small businesses during the last four years, and tripled loans for Black-owned businesses and doubled small-dollar loans for Latino businesses.

The visit was also a major celebration for New Hampshire Democrats, who have been newly energized by the Harris campaign’s arrival on the 2024 ticket, a scene reflected both by in-state polls which have had Harris leading Trump by as much as 8 points and the crowd that came out to see her Wednesday, which packed the venue.

“This is history. This is the first woman president. I’m very excited,” said Scott Montesano of Barrington.

Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and congressman Chris Pappas delivered remarks ahead of Vice President Harris, laying out the stakes of 2024 and taking swipes at Donald Trump’s record of rolling back reproductive rights for women.

Senator Shaheen said Harris was the answer New Hampshire voters were looking for to defeat Trump in November.

“We know, as everyone says, there’s just so much at stake in this election, our economic opportunity, our freedom, our democracy, are all on the ballot, and I have no doubt that Kamala Harris is the voice we need In the White House for the next four years.”