A typically under-the-radar race for the board of the public utility serving Phoenix has been shaken up by the enthusiastic involvement of Turning Point USA.
The conservative group founded by the late Charlie Kirk is one of several major players throwing its weight around elections for the board of Salt River Project, which serves 1.1 million people in the Phoenix area. Long known for its attacks on feminism and diversity, Turning Point recently has sought to become a political kingmaker in its backyard of Arizona.
Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer said the Salt River Project (SRP) race offers the Arizona-based group a chance to meet voters on a pocketbook issue — and grow its influence ahead of a high-stakes primary season in the battleground state.
“The SRP territories, they’re pretty blue,” Bowyer said. “If we can get turnout and activate the toughest place in the state for us right now, that could play a huge role for us later on in November.”
But the group’s heavy involvement — including a campaign of door-knocking and yard signs promoting a slate of candidates — is raising eyebrows given the pressures facing the Phoenix utility.
SRP not only controls the power mix for one of the nation’s most crowded markets but also manages water in a drought-ridden state. As a community-owned utility, it is not regulated by the state — and April’s board election gives voters the chance to directly weigh in on electricity matters.
“The worry I have, and many others have, is that Turning Point wants SRP to stop building what’s economically rational and start building what scores political points,” said Paul Walker, a longtime utility analyst in Arizona. “They have nobody with any background or training in the water or electric sectors, but that’s not stopping them from trying to tell Arizona voters how to shape the water and power future.”
Bowyer said the group is deploying hundreds of people full time ahead of the April 7 election (early voting starts Wednesday). The group has endorsed a ticket led by Christopher Dobson, a current SRP board member seeking the board’s presidency. Bowyer said the Dobson ticket would push back against “radical changes that would throw our utilities for a loop and drive up prices.”
“It comes down to essentially protecting SRP and ensuring that costs stay low,” Bowyer said. He added that he wanted candidates who would oppose a move toward wind and what he called “bad solar” and away from the region’s existing fossil fuel power supplies.
It’s part of Phoenix-based Turning Point’s efforts to expand its political footprint in Arizona. Turning Point also is backing candidates in municipal and statewide races this year, including elections for the statewide utility board.
Dobson himself is not an ideologue — with SRP, he has voted for a diverse energy mix that includes solar, wind and nuclear energy.
“Renewables are going to play a big part, but you need natural gas for dispatchability and reliability,” Dobson said in an interview. “The other side doesn’t want any natural gas, but you need it to make the grid sustainable. At the same time, some on the far-right side don’t want to talk about renewables, but the economics are clear and solar is cheap.”
The same slate of candidates is also being backed by the business group Arizonans for Responsible Growth — although it is not working with Turning Point. ARG says it could spend upwards of $500,000 in the utility race, and it has drawn support from major construction firms, the power giant NextEra Energy and even a $25,000 donation from Google.
Google’s involvement is raising eyebrows, given that a competing ticket of candidates has billed itself the “clean energy slate.” Google, which operates data centers in SRP territory and has funded clean energy projects in the utility, has vowed to power its operations with only carbon-free energy by 2030. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The clean energy slate
The clean energy ticket is led by Sandra Kennedy, a former state regulator who unsuccessfully tried to pass a 100 percent clean energy mandate in Arizona and has touted a commitment to reducing air pollution. Casey Clowes, who is running for vice president on the slate, said the ticket has made inroads by talking to voters about a “livable future and transitioning away from fossil fuels.”
“Clean energy and affordability are not at odds anymore,” Clowes said in an interview. “The talking points the other side is using on clean energy are so old.”
According to data from the American Public Power Association, SRP is the largest power public utility by generation, controlling a fleet that generated nearly 33,000 megawatt-hours in 2023. That’s more than similar public utilities serving San Antonio, Los Angeles and parts of New York state.
That fleet — which currently is 38 percent natural gas, 16 percent coal and 18 percent nuclear energy — is going to need to at least double in the next 10 years in order to meet its rapidly escalating load, driven in part by data centers and new industry in the Phoenix area. SRP currently gets about 32 percent of its energy from emissions-free or renewable resources and has a goal to achieve 75 percent renewable by 2035.
The utility already has said it plans to convert existing coal-fired units at the Springerville and Coronado plants to run on natural gas and won approval to expand an existing gas plant in 2023 over objection from the nearby historically Black community.
Last month, the utility said it was seeking up to 2,900 megawatts in new resources of all types, including natural gas and renewables. Clowes said that a decadelong effort to put clean energy backers on the board has helped push the resource mix toward solar and storage and helped institute a greenhouse gas emission reporting requirement.
SRP’s board also will have to navigate a high-stakes and uncertain moment on the water supply front as Arizona brawls with its neighbors over access to the drought-riddled Colorado River in a fight that looks increasingly likely to head to the Supreme Court.
Central Arizona communities including Phoenix and its suburbs are the most legally vulnerable in the fight and are likely to see their Colorado River supplies significantly curtailed. That would leave many communities increasingly reliant on SRP supplies. Multiple major projects to facilitate this are in various stages of development.
Advocacy groups say the race has high stakes.
“This board makes decisions on power plants and on the future of energy in Arizona that affect the pocketbooks of regular people,” said Vianey Olivarría, executive director of Chispa AZ, a group representing Latino residents. “There’s the potential to increase rates and to increase the burning of fossil fuels in Arizona.”
The influence game
ARG, the business group, has framed the race as crucial to the future of the tech industry in the Phoenix region, which has one of the nation’s top concentrations of data centers. Jimmy Lindblom, vice president of economic development and infrastructure for construction firm Willmeng and the president of ARG, said the group’s supporters are a “balanced mix of growth-minded people” both in and out of the data center industry.
“We recognized that there weren’t really businesses who were aware of the growing need for power and we saw the need to elect candidates who will ensure power stays affordable, reliable and can meet growth responsibility,” Lindblom said. “Our candidates are all in on any way to get there.”
However, the utility’s influence over data centers also intersects with the business interests of at least two board members endorsed by ARG. Data center developer EdgeCore is exploring a new data center on land owned by the family of Dobson, the current board member who is running for president. EdgeCore has contributed at least $10,000 to ARG.
The quirks of the SRP election, which require residents to request a ballot and allocate votes based on acres of land owned, make direct turnout more important.
For Turning Point, that offers a chance to meet voters face-to-face on a politically salient issue. Democrats nationwide made political hay of rising electricity prices in last year’s off-year elections — including flipping two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission — and they are pounding the issue ahead of this year’s midterms.
“We’re out talking to voters about common sense issues and it starts to unify people,” Turning Point’s Bowyer said.
Clowes countered that Turning Point’s enthusiasm should motivate voters opposed to the far-right group.
“If you want to deliver a defeat to Turning Point and quash their power before it moves to other states, you should care about this race,” she said. “This is the first time you can deliver a big ‘L’ to Turning Point.”
Annie Snider contributed to this report.
