The Hill has learned that Vice President Harris will travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday to stop at a public forum to discuss Latino small businesses.
In Raleigh, Harris will join small business administrator Isabella Casillas Guzmán and Vicky García, senior vice president of the Latino Community Credit Union, a financial institution founded in 2000 to address North Carolina’s Wave of immigrant robberies in Durham
The panel will be moderated by Jorge Buzo, news and community coordinator for the local Univisión affiliate and former Telemundo anchor in Atlanta.
While Latino communities have grown significantly in states like North Carolina (Latinos make up about 10 percent of the state’s population, according to the U.S. Census), Hispanic outreach typically targets states with historically large Latino populations.
States such as North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have attracted large numbers of Hispanic immigrants due in part to their agricultural industries.
In North Carolina, however, six in 10 North Carolina Hispanics were born in the United States, according to a report released by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Harris’ focus on small businesses also addresses what the Hispanic community cares most about nationally — jobs and the economy.
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), nearly a quarter of new businesses are Hispanic-owned, and Hispanic-owned businesses employ about 1 million workers and generate more than $100 billion in annual wages.
Harris will be joined by the governor. Roy Cooper (D), Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin (D), Democratic Representative of North Carolina. Wiley Nickel, Valerie Foushee and Deborah Ross, and Marla Bilonick, President and CEO, National Latino Community Asset Builders Association.
The vice president last visited North Carolina’s Research Triangle in September 2022 to promote the Biden administration’s Lower Inflation Act, local radio station ABC11 reported.