ENR 2024 Election Coverage
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As construction groups and leaders look ahead to the Nov. 5 elections, they see questions and uncertainty.
As of ENR press time in late September, the presidential contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is neck and neck.
The outlook for control of the Senate and the House are up in the air as well, with any final majority likely to be narrow. Steve Hall, American Council of Engineering Companies executive vice president, says, “I think the Republicans still have probably a better-than-even chance of taking the Senate, although the margins of a majority will be fairly thin, 51-49, 52-48, perhaps.”
In the House, Hall says that the Republican majority is slender, too. With Harris doing well, he adds, “It’s a different race now. It’s making Democrats much more bullish on taking the House.”
“Welcome to 50-50 America,” says Dave Bauer, American Road & Transportation Builders Association president and CEO. “And the only things that I’m super-confident about are that there’s going to be an election on Nov. 5 and that no party is going to have the 60-vote majority in the Senate.” That is generally held as the threshold for avoiding a filibuster in that chamber.
Another two years of a divided government seems like a real possibility. “This setup can lead to more legislative gridlock and ‘messaging’ bills,” says Michele Stanley, National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association executive vice president and chief advocacy officer. However, Stanley says, “we still anticipate bipartisan achievements.”
As evidence, Stanley points to the five-year Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that a GOP-controlled House and a Senate led by Democrats passed by wide margins. Enacted in May, the bill provides $19.7 billion, a 19% increase, for the FAA’s Airport Improvement Program infrastructure grants.
Infrastructure advocates hope that such bipartisanship will continue in the new Congress, as lawmakers begin work on a new surface transportation reauthorization bill. The current reauthorization expires Sept. 30, 2026.
If the elections end up in a divided government, Bauer says that would mean “that action of any significance—and certainly renewal of the surface transportation programs qualifies as exceptionally significant—is going to require bipartisan action.”
ENR editors examine how either a Harris administration or a Trump administration would affect key construction issues, including infrastructure, workforce, energy and climate.
