Election Outcomes Will Impact Your Business

It’s election season. Yes, again. Most people are sick of campaign ads and campaign promises, which makes it tempting to ignore the noise or focus on just one or two issues. As retailers and business owners, elections at every level can have a major impact on your livelihood.

Decisions are made at every level from city council and county commission to the Michigan House of Representatives to members of Congress. This is why MRA takes the step of evaluating state- level legislative voting records and asking new candidates tough questions on important retail topics.

Campaign season sometimes brings out the worst in people, so we focus on using an objective screening process to determine our Friends of Retail. Candidate questions and voting records focus on how legislative candidates will react to or have voted on legislative issues from regulations, to taxes, to employment policies. This review and MRA’s recommendations are then approved by the Association’s board of directors, made up of Association members.

Our Friends span the political spectrum and every candidate is invited to participate in the process. MRA members should have received emails with the list of candidates who earned the Association’s “Friend of Retail” designation broken down by region ahead of the Aug. 6 primary election. The full list of those state house candidates who will move on to the general election will be shared in our October/November issue and again via email.

The goal of our Friends of Retail list is to give MRA members more information as the election draws near. This information is unique to the retail perspective and cannot be found elsewhere. We only evaluate candidates and incumbent legislators on issues that impact retail.

It should go without saying that MRA members are welcome to make their own decisions and the Association’s recommendations may never fully align with any one individual member’s choices on who to cast their vote for in any race. The Association is a large tent, with room for everyone and many different political perspectives.

We hope our Friends of Retail information is helpful as you head to the polls in November. Because like it or not, the election is coming. Ignoring it only means giving up your say in who makes decisions for your business.