Turning Point USA brought voters to the polls by pouring money into a typically under-the-radar Arizona utility board race.
But not only the conservative voters it wanted.
A record-breaking 36,000 people showed up Tuesday to vote for the board of the Salt River Project. That’s nearly five times as many as voted in 2024 for the community-based, non-profit public utility, which controls water and electricity for the Phoenix area.
The far-right Turning Point, founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, endorsed board candidates that would back fossil fuels and oppose renewable mandates. The group’s intervention — along with that of companies like NextEra Energy and Google — attracted outsize attention to the municipal race.
But the surge in voters actually resulted in clean energy advocates flipping two board seats and gaining an 8-6 majority. They had their own big money support from the Jane Fonda Climate PAC.
Randy Miller, a former board member who backed the so-called Clean Energy Slate, said the victory demonstrates that “the people of Arizona truly want renewable energy.”
“We can show that the utility can be successful and profitable and still support renewable energy,” said Miller, who now serves on an advisory council for the board. “It’s no longer a question about whether it’s possible.”
Turning Point still called the election a win, as the candidates it backed took the board presidency and vice presidency, which comes with control over the board’s agenda.
The group also saw the utility election as a way to reach new voters in traditionally Democratic territory. Turning Point Action COO Tyler Bowyer said the group “reached tens of thousands of new voters” and activated Republicans who otherwise wouldn’t have voted — while also drawing a contrast with what he called left-wing energy policy.
“I think once the general public becomes even more aware of the priorities of the other board members, that will push the electorate even more to the right,” he said after the results came in. “Bad energy policy has an impact on everyone’s day-to-day life. Shining a spotlight on that is a really good thing for Arizona Republicans.”
The path forward
Salt River Project — which serves more than 2 million people — faces a power crunch. The utility will need to at least double its generation capacity over the next decade to meet a growing population and data center boom. It also faces a mandate to reduce carbon intensity by 82 percent of 2005 levels by 2035 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
So far, the utility has been leaning on natural gas as a baseload resource. SRP is converting existing coal-fired units at two plants to run on natural gas and in 2023 gained approval to expand the Coolidge gas plant over objection from the nearby historically Black community.
This year, the utility issued a request for proposals for up to 2,900 megawatts of new resources of all types, including natural gas and renewables. If all of that is built, that would increase SRP’s fleet by more than 30 percent.
Chris Dobson, the incoming president who was endorsed by Turning Point, has previously voted for a diverse resource mix and told POLITICO’s E&E News last month that renewables “are going to play a big part” for the utility. Dobson also said that natural gas provides “dispatchability and reliability” compared to intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar.
Sandra Kennedy, an SRP board member on the clean energy slate who unsuccessfully ran for the presidency, said there’s an opening for new renewable energy and storage, despite a traditionally gas-heavy portfolio. The utility gets 18 percent of its energy from solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal, with another 18 percent from nuclear energy.
“We’ve got an opportunity to make some huge policy decisions,” said Kennedy, who is keeping her board seat.
Among their pitches: Change the utility’s archaic election rules that allow only landowners to vote, with more weight given to those with more acreage. The policy dates back to the utility’s founding, when landowners put up financial backing for a dam project supporting reliable water in Phoenix and wanted a greater stake in its management.
“Renters are angry they don’t get a chance to voice their opinion,” she said. “We’ve got to move to a direction where everybody that pays a bill should at least be able to vote on a board that could raise their rates.”
The board is also facing a high-stakes moment on water supply with the drought-riddled Colorado River. Although SRP has its own water supply, central Arizona communities are legally vulnerable in a multi-state fight over access to Colorado River supplies and that could leave more communities reliant on SRP supplies.
Turning Point’s Bowyer said that the group’s success in turning out voters at the top of the ticket bodes well for engagement on resource issues heading into the midterms, where conservatives have endorsed candidates on the state’s utility regulatory board.
“We sent a huge message that Republicans are out and active, even in areas that Democrats win by wide margins,” Bowyer said. “Everybody needs to be alert and awake that the way Arizona grows and Phoenix grows is up for public discussion.”
