You’ve been with NFIB your entire career.

That’s unusual, isn’t it? I came on board in 1992; we did not have a political department, but it was started two years later and led to a period of significant growth for NFIB. Our members have always been engaged participants in the democratic process, and we had a PAC for many years. But I think there was an increased recognition of the extent to which elections are business decisions, and how important it is for small-business owners to understand the issues and how these issues affect their companies, whether these involved taxes or regulation or health care, for example. There’s a growing sense, as they say, that “if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” We need more people in public office who have signed the front of a paycheck and not just the back — business owners, for example. And COVID only made this all the more important.

How did COVID affect your PAC operations?

In some ways, it had little effect but in others a great deal. Here’s why COVID really didn’t affect what we do. We do a majority of our fundraising through direct mail and by telephone. We don’t usually have big annual meetings where attendees are asked to contribute. So, our methods didn’t change. We were able to continue as we always had, and we did not see a significant downturn in contributions. Even though our methods didn’t change, the message did.

In what way?

You remember how big-box stores were allowed to stay open, but small retailers were required to be closed? We had to begin to advocate for equitable treatment, especially when it came to PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] loans and the CARES Act and other COVID relief programs. We had a new set of issues to address.

We keep hearing, in this election year, how employers are one of the few sources of information that people still trust — much more so, for example, than politicians or the media. Do you find this to be the case?

It is the case. Small businesses and small-business owners are not just trusted sources of information but trusted members of the community. Small businesses support our schools. They sponsor Little League teams. They give teenagers their first jobs. And as members of NFIB, they are a source of reliable information for their employees about when to register to vote and how to understand the issues that are important for small business and those who depend on them. Our members don’t tell people who to vote for, but they do educate the voters about the issues. That, too, is why they are deemed trustworthy.