Affordable housing. Jobs.

Those topics are always top of mind in the Valley’s development community. In a big election year, they take on greater significance.

Valley Partnership kicked off 2024 with political predictions. As the Arizona Legislature starts a new session and the 2024 election season heats up, local experts reviewed the latest voter sentiment toward candidates, major policy issues, and their predictions for the General Election in November.

Guest speaker Paul Bentz, Senior Vice President of Research and Strategy for Highground put the 2024 election into perspective by talking about what happened in 2020, when Democrats won the major races in Arizona including president (Joe Biden), governor (Katie Hobbs), attorney general (Kris Mayes) and U.S. Senate (Mark Kelly).

“There is always a higher voter turnout when the presidential race is at the top of the ballot,” Bentz said. “After 2020, pundits were calling Arizona a purple state. Arizona is still and red state, just with blue spots.”

The panel was moderated by longtime KJZZ public radio host Steve Goldstein. Providing their prognostications for 2024 were Matt Benson, Partner with Veridus; and Stacy Pearson, Co-Founder of Lumen Strategies.

Based on what happened in the 2020 election, both predict the 2024 election cycle is going “to be a wild ride.” They are also hopeful that voters “will pick problem solvers, which are much-needed in today's political landscape.

”The dialogue started with a discussion of the Arizona Commerce Authority, which has come under scrutiny by the Attorney General’s office and the Arizona Legislature.

“It will survive, but it will be ugly for a long minute,” Pearson said.

“In order to attract business, you have to work in the middle, and there are not a lot of folks in the middle,” Benson added.

Also discussed were the state’s budget shortfall (Benson called it a short-term hiccup), affordable housing (Pearson said developing housing is so personal, with NIMBYism rooted in some people’s minds), and water (Pearson said Arizona is fortunate because cohesion exists between the many stakeholders).

An area of bipartisanship is K-12 education. Both said a big issue where there is agreement is in teacher pay. Criminal justice reform represents another area of bipartisanship for the Arizona Legislature.