Thanks to this year’s Republican wave, the number of small-business owners in Congress will triple in size in January. Thirty-three new lawmakers, all Republican and including two women, make their living running small enterprises. The last Congress had only 11 small-business owners.

 

Fourteen of the 33 never have held elected office before. Most of the others have experience serving in their state legislatures. All but one of the small-business owners will be joining the House of Representatives. The exception is soon-to-be Sen, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who owns a specialty polyester and plastics manufacturing firm.

 

Jeff Denham of California is also in the plastics industry, having switched from owning a salad-bagging business. Robert Schilling of Illinois owns a pizza restaurant (Saint Giuseppe’s Heavenly Pizza); Steve Southerland of Florida owns three funeral homes; Robert Dold of Illinois operates an extermination service; and Michael Grimm of New York used to run a health-food restaurant, but now distributes diesel fuel.

 

Mike Kelley of Pennsylvania and Scott Rigell of Virginia both operate car dealerships.

 

And then there’s Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, who spent 28 years running a roofing company. Ribble claimed during his campaign that President Barack Obama’s stimulus program “has done nothing to jumpstart the economy.” But that didn’t stop him from accepting a school contract that was funded by the stimulus plan.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Meet the New Small-Business Owners in Congress (by Robb Mandelbaum, New York Times)