VP Kamala Harris Offers Leg Up For Small Businesses in NC

Kamala Harris at the Dem Candidates Attend Forum On Wages & Working People

Kamala Harris made history as the first woman, first Black American, and first South Asian-American vice president when she was elected into office in 2021. Prior to her vice presidency, she was the Attorney General of California and District Attorney of San Francisco. Harris was born in Oakland, California, and is the daughter of immigrants. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast cancer scientist, and her father, Donald Harris, is an economist and professor at Stanford University. Kamala is a Howard University and University of California Hastings College of Law graduate. She married Douglas Emhoff in 2014 and shares his two children, Ella and Cole, from a previous relationship.

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

I actually had a 'fan out' moment when I got to talk to the second most powerful person in our country -- Vice President Kamala Harris. What I learned after my initial nervousness is she is such a cool, down-to-earth, yet smart woman who wants the best for the citizens of this country.

Vice President Harris was in the Carolinas (Durham, to be exact) to announce tens of millions of dollars that will be available to historically underserved entrepreneurs in North Carolina. It's all a part of the Biden Administration's strategy (The American Rescue Plan) to invest in American small businesses. Harris is particularly passionate about small businesses run by minority women. The woman she calls her 'second mother' ran a nursery school.

A White House news release says the Biden-Harris Administration is wrapping up their tour on investing in America by awarding $32 million to women and minority-led businesses. An additional $60 million is coming from the private sector. With these funds, 10 businesses in Durham's Historic Black Wall Street will be able to get up and running or scale their businesses. Harris stresses that it is important not just to provide loans to these businesses, but to offer the capital most entrepreneurs don't often have.

In the end, entrepreneurs – including Black-, Hispanic-, veteran- and women-led businesses, as well as those in rural areas – will have a better shot a building and sustaining a business. Harris says under their leadership, applications for new small businesses have grown their strongest over the last three years. And Black business ownership has grown at the fastest pace in 30 years.

To learn more about getting a small business loan, visit sba.gov.