For Atlanta entrepreneurs, how to vote comes down to more than 'How's business?'

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Ryan Wilson is having a good year. After having wrested back control of his members-only networking space in December, he said the Gathering Spot’s revenue has hit $20 million and keeps growing. The Atlanta-based company is now looking to open a fourth location, in Houston, by next year. But like many small-business owners in Georgia’s capital, where President Joe Biden and Donald Trump will meet Thursday for their first debate of the 2024 race, Wilson said his priorities as a voter go beyond his bottom line. He applauds the Biden administration’s efforts to extend federal student loan relief and access to capital to entrepreneurs, for example. “Those are the sorts of things that move the needle” for the business community overall, said Wilson, who’s hosting a debate watch party at the Gathering Spot on Thursday night. Ryan Wilson, co-founder and CEO of the Gathering Spot, worries about disinformation affecting the 2024 vote. Ari Skin for NBC News Today, Trump leads Biden in Georgia by 43% to 38%, according to a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey of likely voters, an edge just outside its 3.1% margin of error. The swing state’s robust but uneven economic recovery makes it a Rorschach test for residents heading to the polls this fall — creating an opening for both campaigns’ messaging. Georgia is in the midst of a startup boom. Business formation peaked at 320,000 new filings in 2021, during the depths of the pandemic, and it has held at near-record levels since. The state’s business climate, with its generous tax breaks for the entertainment industry and a corporate ecosystem anchored by Atlanta stalwarts Coca-Cola and Home Depot, has been ranked first in the country by Area Development magazine each of the last 10 years. Wilson, 34, plans to vote for Biden, but he thinks the president should do more to tout entrepreneurial provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, among other policies. “The legislation happened. It’s meaningful,” he said.