Election Year Forecast Kicks Off Agenda at WDMA Spring Legislative Conference

The Window and Door Manufacturers Association kicked off its 2024 Spring Meeting and Legislative Conference on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Alex Thompson, national political correspondent for Axios, headlined the conference’s opening general session which focused on this year’s presidential election and the current political climate. Find more information on WDMA's advocacy priorities. 

Follow @WindowDoorMag for more live updates and insights from the conference.

Election Year 2024 takeaways

1. Election year will be “painful.” Thompson started his presentation by acknowledging the significant divisiveness of this election. “It will be like watching a football game where both sides never leave center field,” he said. Thompson cited a recent Wall Street Journal poll that showed Trump significantly leading Biden in swing states, but said Biden could still win.
2. No new legislation, but legislators are planning ahead. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Thompson did not feel any new legislation was likely to be passed in an election year. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good time for advocacy; Thompson explained that legislators are likely to be using this time to plan policy, some of which will be passed in 2025 after the election, according to Thompson.
3. Affordable housing crisis incentivizes building. A lack of affordable housing, one of WDMA’s advocacy issues, is reaching a critical point in many Democrat-controlled cities, says Thompson. While new federal legislation is unlikely to pass right now, especially as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development just stepped down, these regions are very incentivized to building more housing.
4. Inflation remains an issue. “The economy is still burning too hot,” said Thompson. If rate cuts by the Federal Reserve do not happen this year, they are likely for next year, he says.