Newsmakers Spotlight: Jon Waclawski on Politically Advocating for REALTORS®

Jon Waclawski is a first-time RISMedia Real Estate Newsmaker and the vice president of political advocacy at the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). A lawyer by trade, he doesn’t work directly with homebuyers or sellers—rather, his job is making the careers of the people who do so easier.

For the latest entry in our Newsmakers Spotlight series, RISMedia spoke with Waclawski about his professional journey, achievements and ongoing projects at NAR, plus how he foresees the industry changing ahead of its current legal climate. 

Devin Meenan: What was your reaction to being nominated and named a Real Estate Newsmaker for the first time? 

Jon Waclawski: Totally honored, first and foremost. It was a really neat thing to have come across the emails, but for starters, anyone who does what I do in terms of running political advocacy and a usually behind-the-scenes type of role, you don’t get the accolades, so to have that recognition was pretty neat. There’s a lot of hard work that we’re doing here at NAR—modernizing our political programs and doing things in a forward-looking way. It felt really nice to be recognized that way. 

DM: Can you talk about the backstory of how you became involved in NAR’s political advocacy and got to your current position? 

JW: I’m in my seventh year with NAR. I was hired in the summer of 2017 to be the political compliance lawyer, and that’s been my profession for many years. Prior to joining NAR, I worked in a private practice boutique political law firm, and I served that niche needed within our trade association. But of course, I was integrating and working most closely with the advocacy team here. While I was on the legal team, I was working with the advocacy team day in and day out. We started talking about the opportunity, and the more we talked about it, the more it made sense for me to come on board and be the vice president of our political advocacy operation. As the lawyer integrated into the advocacy team, I was very familiar with all of the pieces of the puzzle, and for me to step up and be responsible for them was a natural next step.

DM: Since you mentioned you’re working on some new programs at NAR right now, could you go in more detail about that? 

JW: We recently launched a direct-to-candidate giving platform, the Pro Property Platform Toolkit. It provides NAR members and the general public the ability to view all of the members of Congress and candidates who have a very strong pro-property, pro-housing and pro-real estate record, all in one place. Through this platform, they are then able to make direct contributions to those members of Congress and candidates in a way that they’ve never ever been able to do before in a pro-property way. 

DM: Since your role is mainly behind-the-scenes, what would you say to REALTORS® as to why they should pay attention to what you’re doing, and political discourse or contributions, generally speaking? 

JW: I like to think that the majority of our members, when they look at the value proposition of NAR, hone in on advocacy, right? Otherwise, why would they be a member of a trade association? It’s not just to get your discount for rental cars or whatever it may be. We’re working day in and day out to move the needle in the advocacy space to advocate for the lobbying teams out there who are meeting with members of Congress and advocating for legislative priorities. What they should also know is that we are putting resources to work at all three levels—local, state and federal—to ensure that candidates running for office know the value of upholding policy positions that lead to a greater real estate environment that helps our REALTOR® members, upholds the value of owning a home and ensures that property rights are protected. And so that would be the message. Don’t ever forget that we’re tackling all advocacy efforts, not just the ones that get oftentimes the most views. There’s an effort that is spending resources, communicating with voters about what it means to vote, from candidates at all three levels, to champion real estate-related issues and priorities. 

DM: Zooming in on a micro level, what does your day-to-day look like when it comes to communicating with both REALTORS® and politicians, and trying to lobby these efforts that NAR is promoting? 

JW: It is amazing how different each day can be. My team is probably the largest team staff wise within our association, but also probably the most diverse in terms of what we handle. We handle both sides of RPAC, our REALTOR® political action committee, fundraising and disbursements. I have a team of political representatives that are in charge of liaising with our state and local associations across the country. I have another team that just focuses on managing our political technology. I have a team that runs a state-focused political grant program. I have another team that runs a state-focused issue-related grant program, and a team that interfaces with the government affairs community at the state and local level, plus, a political compliance quasi-legal team, as well. On a day-to-day basis, we have a lot of things going. 

DM: Obviously there’s been a lot of discussion lately in the industry about the lawsuits and rule changes at NAR. Where do you see the industry going in the future in light of these current and upcoming changes? 

JW: The way I approach what is happening is by reminding myself that I’m not a practitioner. I let the members do the work. I let other team members at NAR help support those changes. My role is to keep my head down and ensure that our advocacy-related components, in the political space especially, are championing the members of Congress to be leveraged for anything we need in the changes that are happening. In other words, if I’m doing my job and we’re getting the people elected who are friends of ours, that will make the new world order that we’re seeing come to bear easier for everyone. The decision makers and the legislators will be sympathetic to the changes, understand the new world order and most importantly, understand the value that REALTORS® bring to the most complicated transaction that people face in their lives. I try to stay out of all of the day-to-day aspects of the lawsuits and what’s happening. I just know that if I do my job, the environment will be so much better for those changes at the end of the day. 

DM: Since you came to NAR from a more general legal advocacy background, what made you stay? Not just in the association, but what draws you and has kept you in the real estate space specifically when it seems like, if you wanted to, it would be easy for you to pivot?

JW: I had no idea what I was getting into when I first came on board with NAR. I just knew that they had a wonderful reputation in DC and amongst the people that I regularly interacted with. But since coming on board, what has been enlightening is not only the quality of staff that I interact with on a regular basis within the association and across the association, but quite honestly, it’s the members. They are absolutely tremendous. If that weren’t the case, it would be hard to be motivated to come into work every day. It’s easy to believe in the things that our members support here at the National Association of REALTORS® because of their tenacity, the fact that they wake up every morning without a paycheck, that they’re working so hard to do well by their clients and believe in the American dream. That’s really what’s kept me here—the quality of people that I work with day in and day out, but also the members.

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