Sherrod Brown, Greg Stanton Highlight How Biden-Harris Economic Plan Will Help Arizona Recover from COVID-19
Valley Businesses Share Stories of Hardships, Resilience
Today, Biden for President hosted a virtual roundtable with Senator Sherrod Brown, Congressman Greg Stanton, and Arizona business owners on how the Biden-Harris “Build Back Better” economic agenda will support local small businesses and manufacturers as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sherri Barry and Angela Johnson of Fashion and Business Resource Innovation Center (FABRIC) gave a virtual tour of their headquarters in Tempe, showing viewers how they turned their in-house event space into a PPE manufacturing line. Yesenia Ramirez of Salvadoreno Restaurant in Phoenix talked about how she struggled when her business was passed over during the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program assistance in favor of chain restaurants and large corporations. Each of the business owners shared how they’ve navigated the fits and starts of Arizona’s reopening plan, and Senator Brown and Congressman Stanton highlighted how Joe Biden will put Main Street first and help Arizona’s working families build back better than ever.
“You’ve got to look at the City of Phoenix or how Maricopa County is doing, or the City of Flagstaff’s doing. [Donald Trump] looks at the stock market. If the stock market’s good, he’s good…When there’s a fork in the road, if it’s between small businesses and large corporate interests, he always goes with large corporate interests,” said Senator Brown. “We’re going to ensure American tax dollars are actually spent on American businesses, and we’re going to help those small businesses and actually invest not in overseas operations, but invest in our workers and their communities. When you love your country, you fight for the people who make it work.”
“Working families are at the heart of our economic plan to build back better. These business owners are tough. They’re resilient,” said Congressman Greg Stanton.
“Working families are at the heart of our economic plan to build back better. These business owners are tough. They’re resilient,” said Congressman Stanton. “The fact is small businesses throughout Arizona who are still standing made it through not only one but two shutdowns because of this pandemic. A third one would be too many, and would cause many businesses to close their doors. We need to work together to elect a leader who is going to get us through this virus, get this virus under control, get our economy back on track and up and running in a way that puts our health and the safety of American employees and workers first.”
“It’s really hard to be a manufacturer — it takes a lot. It takes a lot of practice and understanding and equipment and specialty. And that’s the thing, is we have been building this here for a while, trying to say, ‘you know what, America has people with those skills,’” said Angela Johnson. “We have people who can do this manufacturing, and they do need jobs, and so we’re here to be able to support that, and to support the entrepreneurs that need that. It’s a win-win for everybody by doing this here.”
“Every little business that you see — any Mexican restaurant, any restaurant or business for that matter — there’s a lot of heart and passion that goes to it. And not just because we’re Salvadoran or we’re Mexican or anything like this. Every little business has that heart in it. It’s a survival thing,” said Yesenia Ramirez. “For the first two to three months we hadn’t heard a single thing [from the loan assistance programs]. Not an email, no phone call, nothing whatsoever. And then you start hearing that these other companies are getting this big amount of money. Small mom and pops, we don’t have any of that. We’re basically our passion, our heart, that’s what’s driving us. So it hurt.”
The deadline to register to vote in Arizona is October 5, and the last day to request a mail-in ballot is October 23. Early voting begins in the state October 7. Make a safe and secure plan to vote by visiting IWillVote.com or VoyAvotar.com.
