During a congressional hearing, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) said the Small Business Administration is working to get out the vote for President Joe Biden in Michigan and keep the swing state blue this November.
The House Small Business Committee held a hearing on Tuesday scrutinizing the SBA’s involvement in voter registration efforts in Michigan, a swing state both parties view critical to locking in a win this November.
Witnesses testifying before the committee expressed concern over the SBA’s actions, including Elaine Parker, who called such actions “election interference.” Parker is the president of the Job Creators Network Foundation.
In March, SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman announced what she called the “first-of-its-kind collaboration” with the Michigan Department of State to “help connect Michiganders to vital voter registration information from the State of Michigan so that more small business owners can exercise their right to vote.”
The SBA’s directive follows a 2021 executive order from Biden ordering all federal agencies to promote “access to voting.”
Witness Stewart Whitson told Crane that since Michigan “is a key battleground state, it doesn’t require a lot of votes for it [SBA] to make a significant impact.” Whitson is the senior director of federal affairs for the Foundation for Government Accountability.
Whitson went on to explain the SBA’s involvement in the voter registration process in swing states.
“This is part of the executive order. It commanded every single executive agency to take part in this whole of government get out the vote effort to benefit the Biden administration. SBA is one of those tools,” Whitson said.
Under oath, Whitson stated that the federal government had given “unlimited funding, resources, reach, and power of the federal government and its agencies in every state.” The witness went on to claim that the SBA is not the only federal agency conducting voter registration on behalf of the Biden administration.
Whitson said the Department of Health and Human Services turned more than 1,400 federally qualified health centers into voter registration “hubs,” the Department of Labor Services has turned 2,300 job centers into voter registration centers, and the Department of Education is “allowing” federal work-study funds to help college students support left-wing groups register voters in Democratic strongholds.
Crane pointed to recent comments made by Tyler Robinson, special adviser to the SBA, in which he, according to Crane, said, “SBA Administrator Guzman is the most traveled Cabinet member, visits battleground states with Democrat members of Congress to help them and Biden get reelected.
He added, “She indirectly campaigns for the president by announcing or highlighting investments in certain communities by the Biden-Harris administration to sway support,” per Crane.
When asked if the SBA’s actions were partisan, Whitson said, “Absolutely.”
“It’s what campaigns do, right? Campaigns engage in get-out-the-vote efforts. And they don’t try to get out the vote of every kind of voter. They try to get out the vote of the voters that will put them in office. And so that’s the problem, now the federal executive branch is engaging in this. A federal executive branch led by a member of one political party and using that apparatus to engage in a get out the vote scheme,” he added.
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Recent polls have Trump leading in Michigan by 0.5%, a razor-thin margin.
In 2020, Trump lost Michigan to Biden 47.8% to 50.6%.
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