November 2026: Advocacy Updates

Local-Level Opportunities & Noteworthy Updates

• Listen up: Two opportunities remain to attend a City of Charleston's State of the City engagement event. Learn more and attend one near you or view recorded meetings.
• Speak up: This month brings another in-person (Oct 1) and online (Oct 7) opportunity to learn and respond to the City of North Charleston's Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) project that will shape the city's growth for years to come. Learn more at onenorthcharleston.com.
• Speak up: The City of Charleston's updated Peninsula Plan and Tourism Management Plan will be presented at Burke High School the evening of November 19. City staff will present key draft elements of the Peninsula Plan, including a draft list of recommendations. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be provided. Draft materials will also be posted online for public comment through Dec. 13, and the plan is expected to be finalized for adoption in early 2027. Learn more. 
• Heads up: Construction of Phase 1 of the Lowline officially started in mid-October. Crews have begun moving dirt at the north end near Mount Pleasant Street, and Bradford Park is preparing to move forward. Learn more about this important linear park coming soon to the spine of the peninsula! 

State-Level Issues Worth Following

• We urge our small businesses to stay informed of the proposed merger between Virginia-based Dominion Energy  and Florida-based NextEra. 
  • "The merger, which would be the fourth-largest corporate consolidation in American history, remains disastrous for ratepayers in Dominion’s service territory. ... There is no “benefits package” on earth that could protect consumers from the financial effects of the market concentration and monopoly power that would result if this deal is approved. If you are in any doubt about who this combination will ultimately benefit, consider the fact that both Amazon and Google, which have significant data center investments in Dominion’s service territory, have jumped into the merger negotiations, stating explicitly that they have a lot of money riding on this corporate marriage, and intend to fight any terms which threaten their financial interests or business models." - Read more from The American Economic Liberties Project
  • What can you do? The South Carolina Public Service Commission (SC PSC) is reviewing the merger proposal and initiating public engagement in the process to hear from South Carolinians. The final decision is set to be made on January 29, 2027. They are currently receiving written feedback from the community and will be hosting a series of live Public Hearings starting in November.
    • There will be one in-person public hearing at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov 17 in North Charleston. Learn more. 

      The PSC notes that, as with all customer public hearings, anyone interested in testifying can only testify at one session and for a maximum of three minutes. To preregister: 

      • E-mail communications@psc.sc.gov; or
      • Complete the survey at this link; or
      • Call 803-896-4120. 
    • At any point, you can send a message to the PSC on how this merger could impact you and your business through this SC Appleseed Legal Justice form.

• Election Update: The state's General Election will be held November 3. Learn more. Results are to come.

   

   

  Federal-Level Issues Impacting Your Success

  • DoorDash is in Advanced Talks to Acquire Delivery Rival Instacart — Read more via Reuters.com. We continue to fight runaway corporate consolidation with our Small Business Rising coalition partners and are opposing this merger. 

  • Dollar General is sued by the FTC and 20 states for illegal, deceptive pricing — Learn more via the A.P. here. The states currently on the lawsuit include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin. We're calling on SC to join the lawsuit. 

  • Price discrimination and Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) enforcement — In July 2024, we joined a coalition of Small Business Rising partners across the country to urge the FTC to take action on price discrimination. In December of 2024, the FTC under Lina Khan's leadership brought the lawsuit against mega wine and spirits distributor, Southern Glazer's. In October of 2026, the FTC settled the case before it went to trial. Under the settlement, “Southern Glazer’s must end discriminatory payments between chain retailers and independent liquor stores. But the company admits no wrongdoing and will pay nothing for the years of overcharges at the heart of the case.” Learn more via the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's statement. 

  • Big Business Just Got Called 'Small' — The Small Business Administration decides who counts as "small." That label controls who gets federal loan guarantees and who gets first shot at government contracts set aside for small businesses — over $200 billion a year. Right now, the SBA is proposing to blow those size limits way up. More than 114,000 additional companies would suddenly qualify as "small." The SBA’s current approach involves examining the structure of each industry, including the distribution of revenue across different sized firms, the level of concentration, and average assets per firm (a proxy for the costs of launching a business). The aim is to determine what constitutes a relatively small business within the context of each industry. 
    
    The proposed methodology abandons this granular approach. Instead, it focuses on the overall size of each market and sets the threshold to exclude dominant companies. The larger the market, the larger a business can be and still count as small because, the agency notes, “a greater level of scale is required for a firm to be dominant.” In effect, the agency is replacing a measure of smallness with a measure of non-dominance.
    
    Read more via Institute for Local Self Reliance. The deadline for weighing in with public comment on this issue was extended to November 20, 2026.  The easiest way to submit your comment is online through regulations.gov on Docket No. SBA-2026-0199 (see the green button “Submit a Public Comment”). You can write your response directly in the fields or upload a document.

Questions? Want to chat? Reach out: Jordan@lowcountrylocalfirst.org