Gubernatorial Candidates Make Their Case to Black Business Owners

Local small-business owner Abigail Baker has seen profits soar for her artificial intelligence integration company, Centient Imagine LLC, over the past three years as more companies embrace the technology and hire her to train their employees to do the same.

She wants the next governor of Georgia to help other Black entrepreneurs grow their businesses as well.

“Empowerment is on my mind, making sure that we are preparing multiple pathways for not only existing small businesses, but emerging small businesses,” Baker told Capital B Atlanta during a recent phone interview. “We want to think about the next generation of business owners in Georgia.”

The 38-year-old Ellenwood resident was one of an estimated 250, mostly Black entrepreneurs who RSVP’d to attend local business leader Omar Ali’s “Shaping The New Georgia” gubernatorial candidate forum Saturday.

Capital B Atlanta served as a co-sponsor for the event.

Eight of the 15 declared candidates for governor participated in the gathering in Lakewood. Democrats Olu Brown, Jason Esteves, Geoff Duncan, Derrick Jackson, Ruwa Romman, and Michael Thurmond were joined by Republicans Chris Carr and Clark Dean.

Ali is a real estate development company founder and previously registered Democrat-turned independent who has built working relationships with Republicans and Democrats in recent years in his quest to improve the lives of Black Georgians. His Black men’s super PAC endorsed Kamala Harris during her 2024 White House run. Last year, Gov. Brian Kemp appointed him to serve on the Board of Governors for the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.

Ali told Capital B Atlanta on Friday that the goal of the candidate forum was to show elected leaders that the “old way” of partisan politics is “coming to an end.”

“The best way to move forward when you’re governing a state or the country is bipartisan,” he said.

Ali gave candidates a literal seat at his candlelit table Saturday afternoon, where they introduced themselves to the audience and discussed how their platforms could help entrepreneurs in the Black business capital of America.

He and TV producer Tamisha Harris moderated the event, peppering candidates with question ranging from their views on bipartisanship to the state of the local economy.

Ali asked each of the candidates what specific policies they would implement during their first two years to help small businesses survive and grow.

Duncan said he’d join the U.S. Supreme Court in opposing President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign goods. He’d also work with organized labor groups to improve economic development and workforce development opportunities so employees can better afford everyday living expenses, such as child care and health care.

“We’re headed in a good direction, but it’s time to go in a great direction,” Duncan said.

Esteves said he plans to launch a $1 million low-interest loan and grant program for small-business owners and entrepreneurs in addition to working with local elected leaders and regulators to eliminate red tape.

“I understand that the number one barrier that people have in opening their own small business or growing it is access to capital,” Esteves said. “I also want to make sure that the tax giveaways that we’re currently giving to the billionaires and the big corporations, that we also show the love to the small-business owners.”

Carr touted the GOP mantra that Georgia is the number one state in America to do business, a status awarded by Area Development magazine for 12 consecutive years, according to the governor’s office. Carr said workforce development, lowering insurance costs, and reducing taxes are ways to help maintain that status.

“We’ve got to get government out of the way so business will grow … make sure we have the lowest tax burden in the nation,” Carr said.

Romman was one of the candidates who pointed out Georgia previously has ranked among the worst states for small business startup failures, according to a 2023 LendingTree analysis, though the state’s ranking has improved.

She said expanding Medicaid would help small businesses compete for employees by relieving them of some of the cost to provide health insurance.

“We lose tens of thousands of jobs by not expanding Medicaid because small business cannot afford to provide the medical benefits that major corporations can,” Romman said.

Brown said he plans to use some of Georgia’s estimated $14 billion budget surplus to create a capital reserve for small-business startups and provide a first hire tax credit to allow them to hire additional staff.

“What makes me different from every candidate for governor is I will always show up. I will always be present, and I will always be here,” he said.

Dean said that rather than giving funds to any entrepreneur to start their own business, he wants to create a marketplace of “problems worth solving” to identify business opportunities for entrepreneurs to create companies that will address those needs.

“If you solve them, there is profit potential and society benefit on the other side of the problem,” he said. “Let’s highlight those and then we will get into the creativity of Georgians to start businesses.”

While Atlanta’s Black business community is among the largest in the nation, the overwhelming majority of Black folks in the city and across the state are employees, not entrepreneurs.

Jackson said his focus is on building out the middle class. To do that, he and Romman talked about immediately raising the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 to $15.

“The late, great Jesse Jackson said trickle down economics doesn’t trickle down,” he said. “We need to have economic policy starting from the bottom up.”

Thurmond talked about starting an initiative to rebuild community banks to boost job growth across the state. Many banks have shuttered previously due to the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent consolidation.

“My motto will be, ‘A job for every Georgian and a Georgian for every job,’” Thurmond said.

Baker and other attendees applauded the candidates for participating in the forum. She said it helped her narrow her choices for governor down to three people, and Republicans Carr and Dean were among them.

“They were speaking the small-business language very effectively,” Baker said.

Stockbridge resident Rachelle Crockett, owner of Bessie’s Natural Treasures, a wellness company that sells skincare products and immune-system-boosting tea blends, said she was impressed with Jackson, Romman, and Esteves’ platforms because their ideas seemed to be more concerned with the working class.

“Certain things they said made sense to me in how it would help the masses and not just the few,” she said.

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