NAW Legal Updates, Labor and Tax Updates

In an election year, Memorial Day traditionally marks the beginning of campaign season, a time when politicians pivot from focusing on their jobs as legislators to focusing on getting reelected. This year that transition occurred much earlier, and campaign season has already begun in earnest. But for this newsletter, I will stick to the traditional calendar and start pulling in more political insights and campaign news as the summer commences. Our policy fights against regulatory overreach continue, just last week NAW filed two new lawsuits challenging the government’s new Overtime and Worker Walkaround rules (see below) but we will also highlight relevant political trends.  

One early positive political trend is that both parties are pivoting toward centrist candidates in key primaries. For the past several cycles we watched the hard right and the hard left win their party’s primary battles, but 2024 looks to end that cycle. In Senate races like MD, MT, and PA Republicans have managed to keep a clean primary with more moderate candidates that have a better chance of winning statewide at the top of the ticket. Perhaps more shocking and a sign that former President Trump is evolving, he has so far refrained from taking shots at moderates like former governor Larry Hogan (R-MD) in his bid for the Maryland Senate seat. Similarly Democratic leaders have rallied to the support of their more moderate members in tough districts like OR-5 where Rep. Jayapal sister was defeated, and OR-3 where the moderate beat out a progressive. We have also seen several incumbents in both party's defeat challenges that were running to their extremes.