DNC Director of Outreach Communications Tracy King released the following statement: 

“President Biden and Vice President Harris are taking action to close the racial wealth gap and invest in the success of Black families by growing our economy, creating millions of new jobs, doubling the number of Black-owned businesses, supporting homeownership, and cutting Black child poverty in half. This administration is fighting to expand economic opportunities for working and middle class Black families, while Donald Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda failed us at every turn. Under Trump’s administration, Black unemployment levels skyrocketed, Black businesses were excluded from federal loans, and his signature tax scam lined the pockets of his Wall Street allies over the middle class. The numbers are clear: President Biden and Vice President Harris are the only candidates growing the economy, prioritizing new investments in Black communities, and fighting for Black working families.”

Earlier this month, the Biden-Harris administration announced 18 million new business applications, and Black-owned small business creation is at its highest level in 25 years.  

Statement from President Biden: “Today, my Administration announced over 18 million new business applications since I took office, each one an act of hope and confidence. We’ve had the three strongest years for new businesses on record and the small business boom that has powered our economic comeback continues. Since the pandemic, Black business ownership has more than doubled, Hispanic business ownership is up 40 percent, and women own a record share of businesses.

Small Business Administration: “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States has experienced a historic small business boom being led by women and people of color, and FY23 furthered that trend with 11 percent more loans delivered to small businesses than in FY22. Black-owned small businesses are crucial to this monumental growth, with the rate of Black-owned small business creation at its highest level in 25 years.” 

White House Fact Sheet: “The American Rescue Plan also includes a Small Business Opportunity Fund to provide growth capital to main street small businesses in economically disadvantaged areas, including minority-owned businesses”

President Biden’s economic agenda has created over 2.5 million jobs for Black workers and helped the Black unemployment rate fall below five percent for the first time ever.

White House Fact Sheet: Indeed, in April 2023, the unemployment rate for Black workers dropped to 4.8 percent, the lowest since [data collection] began. The latest data shows that unemployment rate for Black workers was 5.6 percent in April 2024 continuing the trend of low unemployment rate for this group by historical standards. For context, the average unemployment rate for Black Americans was about 8 percent from 2016 to 2020 and 11 percent from 2000 to 2015.

Statement from President Biden: On my watch, 15.6 million more Americans have the dignity and respect that comes with a job. Unemployment has been at or below 4% for 30 months—the longest stretch in 50 years. And a record high share of working-age women have jobs.

White House Fact Sheet:

• “Powered a historic economic recovery that created 2.6 million jobs for Black workers—and achieved both the lowest Black unemployment rate on record and the lowest gap between Black and White unemployment on record.
• “Helped Black working families build wealth. Black wealth is up by 60% relative to pre-pandemic—the largest increase on record.”

President Biden has delivered more than $167 billion dollars in student loan debt relief, which disproportionately affects Black Americans, helping to close the racial wealth gap. 

ABC News: “About 12% of youth put student loan debt into their top three issues, while Black voters are twice as likely to list it in their top three, Kiesa said, citing a recent CIRCLE survey from November.”

HIT Strategies: “The September survey revealed that 86% of Black voters supported President Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, including 60% who ‘strongly supported’ the policy. These figures are considerably higher than those in the general population, where just 51% of all voters support Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, according to an Economist/YouGov survey released in September.”

Forbes: “How Biden Forgiving Another $9 Billion In Student Loan Debt Helps Close The Racial Wealth Gap”

“The burden of student loan debt has reached crisis levels, disproportionately affecting students of color and amplifying the racial wealth gap. Now, President Biden’s latest step will help 125,000 borrowers by erasing $9 billion in debt through existing programs. This debt load is not distributed evenly across populations, it falls disproportionately on students of color and their families who are actively trying to close the racial wealth gap.”

The child tax credit in the Biden-Harris administration’s historic American Rescue Plan cut poverty rates for Black children in half in 2021.

PolitiFact: “Biden says expanded child tax credit sharply cut poverty for Black children; data shows he’s right

“Poverty among Black children in the United States dropped nearly half from 2020 to 2021, following the expansion of the child tax credit, according to U.S. Census Bureau supplemental poverty measure data.”

The Biden-Harris administration is increasing homeownership protections, helping Black Americans build generational wealth.

White House Fact Sheet: “President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has helped Americans, including Black Americans, stay in their homes by providing emergency rental assistance. Over 8 million households were served by Emergency Rental Assistance. As of June 2022, Black Americans were the largest group that received this help, representing more than 41% of aid recipients.  The Administration implemented a series of measures that protected homeowners from foreclosure, including a foreclosure moratorium, increased options for mortgage payment forbearance, enhanced loan modifications to resolve delinquencies. In addition, the ARP is helping struggling homeowners catch up with their mortgage payments and utility costs through the Homeowner Assistance Fund.”

Federal Housing Administration: “Similarly, FHA remained the

leader by share for mortgages supporting wealth-building for Black and Hispanic borrowers. Lastly, almost 33,000 senior homeowners were able to age with stability and security in their own homes in fiscal year 2023 thanks to FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage programs.”

Let’s not forget that Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda hurt Black business owners and stifled Black wealth at every turn.

New York Times: “Republicans argue that this will benefit small businesses. In fact, a large majority of small-business owners already have personal tax rates below 25 percent. This provision would aid a small group of developers, investors and other tycoons who work in professions or industries where it is relatively easy to set up pass-through businesses. Like, yes, Mr. Trump and his family, who make their money from one such industry: real estate.”

Vox: “Trump said this tax break was for small businesses. It’s giving $17 billion to millionaires this year”

Associated Press: “THE FACTS: Trump is seeking credit he doesn’t deserve for black job growth. He’s also wrong to assert that Democrats haven’t done anything to improve the economic situation for African Americans.” 

Associated Press: “Education advocates say President Donald Trump’s budget contradicts his campaign pledge to make college more affordable with its proposed elimination of subsidized student loans and cuts in other programs that help students pay tuition. … When he accepted the Republican presidential nomination last year, Trump had said, ‘We’re going to work with all of our students who are drowning in debt to take the pressure off these people just starting out in their adult lives. Tremendous problem.’”

Brookings Institute: “Under the Trump administration, the Treasury Department oversaw and led the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was slow to reach most Black-owned businesses. In 2021, Treasury Secretary Yellen announced that the department would invest $9 billion into the Emergency Capital Investment Program, a new initiative designed to provide capital to community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions—entities that have a better track record of working with the conditions surrounding Black borrowers.” 

CNBC: “Paycheck Protection Program may have left minority business owners behind due to an implementation failure”