VP Kamala Harris speaks in downtown Raleigh. Here’s what we know about her visit.

Vice President Kamala Harris is at the A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater in downtown Raleigh on Monday, where she is participating in a panel discussion about small businesses, including the role of Hispanic-owned businesses.

Harris arrived at the airport just before noon and traveled downtown, with plans to fly out at 3:55 p.m.

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin led off the event at the theater, part of the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts complex. Baldwin was followed by U.S. Reps. Deborah Ross and Wiley Nickel of Wake County and then Gov. Roy Cooper, all Democrats.

Marla Bilonick, president and CEO of the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, introduced the vice president and other participants in the panel discussion: Isabella Casillas Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Vicky Garcia, senior vice president of the Latino Community Credit Union, and the moderator, Univision’s Jorge Buzo.

Accessing capital was the central theme of the group’s conversation, Casillas Guzman said, touting the federal government’s record under President Joe Biden.

”In the president’s first year, $450 billion was disbursed around the country,” Guzman said. “And we got it into the hands of those left out previously, into the hands of the smallest of the small businesses.”

Harris asked Guzman what steps would-be business owners can take if they’re unsure where to start. Through SBA.gov, the Small Business Administration’s website, such people can reach business advisers to help them “get the skills you need to fill that toolkit with all the resources you need to run your business day-to-day,” Guzman said. “Those are expert mentors who’ve done business themselves.”

SBA mentors are available to speak with people in 27 different languages, Guzman added.

Harris said small businesses employ half the nation’s workforce.

”They are contributing to the economic health of our nation in a profound way,” she said.

Bilonick called both small businesses and the Hispanic and Latino population an “engine of the U.S. economy.”

“Hispanic immigrants are significantly more likely to be entrepreneurs than the general U.S. population,” Bilonick added.

Cooper greets Harris at RDU

Harris planned to visit the Triangle last week but changed her plans to travel to Monterey Park, California, where she paid her respects to the victims of the mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration.

On Monday, Cooper and Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal greeted Harris at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where she arrived with Casillas Guzman, Ross and Nickel as well as Rep. Valerie Foushee and Lt. Col. Brittany Carter, commander of the U.S. Air Force 89 communications squadron.

At the theater, Cooper said Harris and other panelists would highlight the role Hispanic-owned businesses play in shoring up local communities and the country’s post-COVID economy.

”We’re here to celebrate them,” Cooper said of all minority- and women-owned businesses. “And that’s why I’ve been so excited about joining together with the Biden-Harris administration to see them grow.”

Still, several challenges stand in the way.

”We still face cynicism, hatred, racism,” Cooper said. “But I believe, in the end, fairness and justice will prevail. I believe in the power of people’s goodness.”

Ross emphasized her interest in helping small businesses survive despite lingering challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the face of the greatest economic challenges our economy had in decades, small business leaders persevered,” Ross said. “Small businesses are the engine of economic growth.”

Buzo asked if now is a good time for people to start small businesses, considering widespread economic challenges.

”Yes, now is a good time,” Harris said. “...The work that we have been doing over the last couple of years has been to maximize the capacity of that additional funding to increase access to capital.”

One way to increase access to capital is to connect business owners with community banks, Harris said, “which are in the community run by members of the community; they understand the capacity of the community; they understand that the culture of the community, the mores of the community, what the community wants for itself.”

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