Our Work

The Main Street Democracy Project

Trusted Voices. Stronger Communities. Healthy Democracy.

The Main Street Democracy Project strengthens democracy by elevating trusted small business voices and turning local businesses into civic hubs in their communities.

Too often, economic debates are shaped by corporate lobbyists and partisan narratives rather than the lived experiences of local employers and workers. The Main Street Democracy Project ensures that small business owners—among the most trusted voices in their communities—are at the center of those conversations.

The project includes two core initiatives:

  • Main Street Media Desk
    A rapid-response communications, legal, and storytelling operation that elevates small business voices in moments of economic and political consequence—countering misinformation and grounding public debate in real experiences from Main Street.

  • 1,000 Main Streets
    A nationwide effort to turn small businesses into trusted civic spaces that host nonpartisan voter registration, community conversations, and opportunities for civic participation.

Care Is Capital

Advancing care policies by showing their local economic impact.

Care Is Capital is Main Street Alliance’s flagship care campaign, where state and federal advocacy comes together in coordinated public action. Through days of action, fly-ins, petitions, testimony, and sustained storytelling, small business owners bring visibility and urgency to care policy debates.

The campaign highlights how childcare, paid leave, and healthcare shape the survival of small businesses and the strength of local economies. By pairing economic data with lived experience, Care Is Capital builds public understanding and support for policies that help working families thrive.

The Coalition for
New Trade

Building a broad-based coalition for new trade
and economic policies.

The Coalition for New Trade, led by former U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, is building a broad alliance to advance trade and economic policies that work for workers, small businesses, and communities.

For decades, trade policy has been shaped far from the people most affected by it. The Coalition for New Trade works to bridge that gap—connecting policymakers, researchers, and business leaders with the lived experiences of entrepreneurs, workers, and local communities.

Together, the coalition is advancing a vision for trade policy that raises standards, strengthens local economies, and ensures that global economic rules serve people and communities—not just the largest corporations.