Rising Tide: How Small Businesses Boost Communities

Legislative Priorities & Senate Dynamics

• Senator Chris Coons is co-sponsoring a bipartisan immigration bill with Senator McCain that combines border security with a path to citizenship for Dreamers, modeled on a House bill with 54 co-sponsors.
• A "Common Sense Coalition" of approximately two dozen senators is working to find a 60-vote compromise between the President's position, Senator Grassley's Republican bill, and a pure Dreamer citizenship bill.
• Both Senators identify the current legislative environment as having an unusual level of open floor debate, allowing for direct votes on substantive issues rather than procedural maneuvering.
• Senator Coons and Senator Moran of Kansas founded the Bipartisan Competitiveness Caucus to address global economic threats from China, Germany, Japan, and India regarding tax policy, intellectual property, and innovation.
• Senator Tim Scott and Senator Coons are co-sponsoring the Investing in Opportunity Act, which passed into law to provide tax incentives for directing capital gains into distressed communities.
• A Sentencing and Corrections Reform Bill is currently before the Judiciary Committee; Senators express hope it will exit committee this week, though floor passage faces significant partisan hurdles.
• Senators Coons and Scott are advocating for the reauthorization of SCORE, a federal volunteer network started by DuPont retirees, citing it has the highest volunteer-to-staff ratio of any federal program.

Personal Narratives & Business Foundations

• Senator Tim Scott flunked out of high school, failing World Geography, Civics, Spanish, and English, before founding an Allstate insurance franchise, a real estate company, and a janitorial cleaning business.
• Scott's insurance agency, started in 1998 with $40,000 in seed money from mentor Al Jenkins, grew to become the number two Allstate agency out of 15,000 nationwide.
• Scott attributes his success to a "switch" (a Southern disciplinary and motivational metaphor), his mother's belief that one should "shoot for the moon," and the advice of mentor John Moniz, a Chick-fil-A operator who died in 1987.
• Senator Coons worked for eight years at Gore-Tex, where his colleague Frank Maisley left to start a small business manufacturing military gloves, employing individuals reentering society from prison or rehab.
• Senator Coons served as a county executive and previously worked as in-house counsel, where he implemented an unconventional ethics training program focused on values and sales rather than compliance checklists.
• Both senators highlight the role of small businesses in mentorship and employment for marginalized groups, including veterans, former inmates, and individuals on the autism spectrum (e.g., "The Precisionists").

Methodologies for Success & Leadership

• Senator Tim Scott utilizes a "TOP" (Think on Paper) methodology, reviewing the previous year's performance on December 31st to set daily, weekly, and monthly objectives for the coming year.
• Senator Coons describes a strategy of "know your customer, know your competitor, and own your contribution," urging the Senate to focus on the 20% of issues where agreement is possible rather than the 70-80% of disagreements.
• Scott conducted an "Undercover Senator" initiative by working part-time jobs (e.g., Moe's, Goodwill, gas station) to understand the daily struggles of constituents, including a former inmate earning $7–$9 per hour.
• Scott's personal narrative includes spending time at the Oval Office speaking "truth in love" to the President following the Charlottesville events, which led to the President's support for the Investing in Opportunity Act.
• Senator Coons draws on his experience as a relief worker in Kenya to inform his worldview, noting the "radical hospitality" and spiritual richness of families with few material resources.

Forward-Looking Statements & Political Outlook

• Senator Scott predicts the upcoming midterm elections will be "very bloody," forecasting a narrow Republican retention of the House majority and a single seat gain for Republicans in the Senate.
• Both Senators express a goal to move beyond 9% congressional approval ratings by competing on substantive issues like education, healthcare, and poverty rather than partisan grievances.
• Senator Coons aims to use his role as co-chair of the 2019 National Prayer Breakfast to demonstrate how nonpartisan faith initiatives can foster servant leadership.
• Senators Graham and Scott are organizing a bipartisan six-senator delegation to Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank to meet entrepreneurs focused on foreign investment and economic development as a path to peace.
• The Senators emphasize that the "easiest" path in politics and economics is often short-term partisanship or poaching companies across borders, whereas the "hard way" involves organic growth and regional cooperation.