Adding to a particularly contested 2024 U.S. national election season, two major “July surprises” have disrupted campaign strategies, public expectations, and global perspectives on America. One surprise was the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024; then, barely a week later, the Democratic Party effectively substituted Kamala Harris for Joe Biden in response to the latter’s July 21 announcement that he would not stand for reelection.

Owners and senior leaders of the approximately 33 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across every U.S. state have unique perspectives on politics because, in many cases, their work lives are heavily intertwined with their personal lives. They tend to be independent-minded and pragmatic and are close to the “ground-level truth” of the economy.

Because SMB owners and senior leaders tend to vote based on a special combination of what they believe will be best for themselves, family, friends, and community, as well as their businesses and customers, we wished to understand their unique perspective on recent election-related events. To take their pulse, the Data Catalyst Institute (DCI) conducted a three-day survey of our exclusive panel of senior decisionmakers at U.S. small and medium-sized businesses.

This report contains quantitative and qualitative information about which presidential candidates they plan to support and what the top issues they care about are. The data is broken down by political party, gender, and other factors.