Small business owners are highly engaged in the 2020 presidential election, as 60% say they are paying “a lot” and 30% “some” attention to it, according to a new Gallup poll.
With near unanimity, small business owners say they are likely to vote in the general election. Sixty percent approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president, and 52% think their business would be better off if he were re-elected.
Most small business owners rate the financial condition of their business positively—56% say it is “excellent” and 38% “good”—and 69% report that their business benefited from the 2017 tax reform law. More than seven in 10 say they reinvested over one-quarter of the savings that resulted from the tax law in their business.
Yet, other policies have had a less positive effect. Seventy percent of small business owners say the cost of health care has had “a lot of” or “some” impact on their ability to hire and retain employees, and half say the same of changes to U.S. immigration policies since 2017.
Among a list of six public policy issues, taxes receive the most mentions: 32% of small business owners say taxes are the greatest impediments to their business operations in this election year. Government regulations (21%), health care (20%) and U.S. trade tariffs (15%) are second-tier obstacles, and climate change (7%) and immigration (5%) are at the bottom of the list. Read the full report from Gallup.
