The Paycheck Protection Program launched in 2020 to help businesses, non-profits and other entities keep workers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, more than 11 million loans were approved and over $700 billion given out, according to the Small Business Administration.
If loan recipients met certain criteria, including showing a decrease in revenue compared to before the pandemic, these loans could be forgiven (MuckRock itself received and had such a loan forgiven).
If loan recipients met certain criteria, including showing a decrease in revenue versus pre-pandemic, these loans could be forgiven (MuckRock itself received and had such a loan forgiven).
PPP loans — designated to help at-risk businesses cover a subset of expenses including payroll costs, rent and utilities — also went to businesses associated with many seeking political office in the upcoming elections.
Reviewing these loans can give fuller context to a political candidate’s background. Florida Politics reporter Jacob Ogles uncovered how Republican candidate Jake Hoffman, who ran for a Florida House seat while touting his business success even during the pandemic lows, had his companies approved for over $450,000 in loans through the program — while also purchasing an Aston Martin and flying off to Europe.
As part of our effort to help background political candidates in 2024, MuckRock is working to build a database of PPP loan applications connected to other politicians running this year. We need your help in identifying candidates who had related entities approved for PPP loans, and to do that we need a list of associated entities to include in our database.
To submit, just fill out the following form listing any businesses, non-profits and other entities we should check, as well as how they are related to the candidate. Add any additional information or context you think might be useful in the space provided.
Are you part of a newsroom that’s investigating a candidate running for political office? E-mail us at news@muckrock.com to learn more about how MuckRock can help your newsroom during the 2024 election with trainings on public records and other support.
