Business for Democracy

In 2022 the American Sustainable Business Network called upon the president/CEO of the South Caorlina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, Frank Knapp, to direct ASBN’s Business for Democracy (BfD) working group.  In March of that year Knapp launched a campaign to build Business for Democracy collaboratives in 8 targeted states.  The mission was to use the trusted voice of small business to elevate the issue of protecting democracy to be one that voters in the midterms would consider when casting ballots.

The message was that a strong democracy was essential for a vibrant entrepreneurial economy and a warning of the negative economic consequences of the country sliding into an autocracy.

The original BfD collaboratives consisted of individual businesses and business organizations in NC, WI, MI, OH, PA, CA, AZ and NV.  Collaborative in MD and DC were added later. Reach the final report of the 2022 BfD campaign here.

In 2023, BfD focused on making state and local elections more democratic by advocating for ranked choice voting in partnership with Rank The Vote, a national grassroots organization.  BfD issues have expanded to include supporting open primaries and protecting the citizen ballot initiative process.