Ballot Math / Corporation Commission

Statewide race: Arizona Corporation Commission

The race that sets your electric bill

November 3, 2026 general election. Five candidates, two seats, vote for up to two.

What this office is: the Corporation Commission is Arizona's utility regulator, written directly into the state constitution in 1912 and independent of the governor and the Legislature, which is why it is often called the fourth branch of government. Its five elected commissioners set the rates charged by electric, gas, and water utilities, and sit as judges in rate cases. When APS asks for a rate increase, this is the body that says yes or no. Only 13 states elect their utility regulators; Arizona is one of them.

How this race works

  • Two of the five seats are on the ballot. Commissioners serve staggered four-year terms, elected statewide, not by district.
  • Vote for up to two. The top two finishers win, regardless of party. Both parties can win a seat, or one party can take both.
  • The current commission is 5-0 Republican. A Democrat last won a seat in 2020. Even if Democrats win both seats this year, the majority stays Republican, 3-2. What changes is the minority's leverage and the direction of future votes.
  • One incumbent is already gone. Chairman Nick Myers, elected with Kevin Thompson in 2022, lost the Republican primary to Ralph Heap and leaves office in January. Thompson is the only incumbent on the November ballot.

Why your electric bill is in this race

The commissioners elected November 3 will vote on APS's pending 14 percent rate request.

The last APS increase, approved 4-1 in February 2024 with Thompson and Myers in the majority, added roughly $10.50 a month to a typical residential bill and a new monthly fee for rooftop solar customers. APS is now asking for about 14 percent more, roughly $20 a month, its fourth request since 2017. Attorney General Kris Mayes has intervened against it, arguing it could be cut to about 3 percent. In Tucson, the commission is expected to vote November 17, two weeks after the election, on a Tucson Electric Power increase that an administrative judge has recommended at about 11 percent on the average residential bill. These are not abstractions: this race is a rate case with ballots.

Kevin Thompson (Republican, incumbent)

Commissioner since January 2023. Mesa City Council, District 6, 2015 to 2023. U.S. Air Force veteran; mechanical engineering degree, UNLV. Worked at Southwest Gas in new business development and government affairs; small business owner. Chaired the commission in 2025.

  • Rate record: voted for the February 2024 APS increase (about 8 percent); voted for the December 2024 formula ratemaking policy, which lets utilities adjust rates annually between full rate cases and which the state consumer advocate has sued to block; voted in March 2026 with the unanimous commission to repeal the state's 2006 renewable energy standard rules, saying the mandates "have become a hammock"; voted to convert two coal plants to natural gas and add roughly 4,750 MW of generation; supported the October 2026 one-time APS bill credit returning about $33.6 million to customers.
  • Priorities, in his framing: protect ratepayers from "utility waste and special interest handouts"; an "all of the above" energy supply for data center and chip plant growth ("we need every electron that we can get"); data centers must pay their full power and grid costs so households are not left "holding the bill." He calls the Attorney General's claim that the APS request could be cut to about 3 percent "election-year politics."
  • Money: running on Clean Elections public financing, like every major candidate in this race. Per state records cited in October 2026 reporting, his campaign had taken in $176,766, the most raised outside public financing of anyone in the field.
  • Also on the record: his consulting firm, Broadmore Consulting, works for EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure, a data center developer, while he regulates the utilities that serve data centers. Thompson confirmed the work and says he does no consulting for the client in Arizona; his EdgeCore work covers California, Nevada, and Virginia projects. His Democratic opponents have made it a central attack. Separately, the Clean Elections Commission voted 5-0 in September 2026 that there was reason to believe Thompson and Myers violated the rule requiring candidates to pay for reused campaign materials from their 2022 race; the pair said they were unaware of the rule and sought to settle.

Ralph Heap (Republican)

Arizona state representative, District 10 (Mesa area), since January 2025. Orthopedic surgeon for about 40 years; fourth-generation Arizonan. No utility industry background. He took the seat his son Justin Heap vacated to become Maricopa County Recorder.

  • How he got here: recruited by Freedom Caucus leader Sen. Jake Hoffman as a more conservative alternative to the incumbents, endorsed by Turning Point Action, and he beat sitting Chairman Nick Myers for the second Republican nomination by about 16,000 votes.
  • Priorities, in his campaign's words (Clean Elections voter guide): "Fight against ESG mandates and California-style energy experiments"; "Oppose unnecessary utility rate increases that punish families and seniors"; "Fully Support the Trump Energy Agenda, with emphasis on fossil fuels and Nuclear energy"; protect rural water; "stand against special interest influence at the Commission."
  • Money, which has been his campaign's dominant story: Heap qualified for roughly $370,000 in Clean Elections funding, but the money was withheld because he would not sign a sworn statement that his finance reports were complete and accurate; in August the commission refused 4-0 to let him leave the program, leaving him unable to raise private funds either, with roughly $18,000 raised. The funding was later released alongside a new investigation. Two complaints remain live: one alleging his reports showed only about $650 of sign spending despite hundreds of large signs statewide (the commission found merit and ordered further investigation), and one alleging an unreported paid signature-gathering operation, which his attorney disputes. His lawyer calls the process "weaponized" against him. Heap also skipped the September 9 candidate debate.

Jonathon Hill (Democrat)

Scientist and engineer from Kingman. Eighteen years at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility working on NASA missions; doctorate in geological sciences. He was also the Democratic nominee for this commission in 2024 and lost.

  • Priorities: lower monthly household bills; use his engineering background to "ask tough, technical questions when utility companies request rate increases"; tighter scrutiny of rate hikes and an end to energy and water breaks for large data centers; more renewable investment and careful groundwater management. On transparency, he promises to use the commission's subpoena power even in the minority: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant. We'll be dragging all sorts of documents into the public view." In October he and Clara Pratte called for an investigation into whether APS shifted data center power costs onto households, with repayment if so.
  • Money: Clean Elections public financing. No Hill-specific fundraising total appeared in the major-outlet coverage we reviewed; he is endorsed by the Arizona AFL-CIO.

Clara Pratte (Democrat)

Member of the Navajo Nation from Lupton, Arizona; her family had no running water or electricity at home until she was in middle school. Co-founder of Navajo Power, a solar developer building projects for Indigenous communities. Former director of Native American Affairs at the U.S. Small Business Administration. If elected, she would be the first Native American elected statewide in Arizona.

  • Priorities: hold down rates while "utilities post record profits"; solar is "the cheapest form of energy on the market"; restore the energy efficiency and renewable mandates the commission repealed, which she argues kept costs low; more frequent rate hearings to prevent "sticker shock"; data centers should cover 100 percent of their development costs including water, power, and infrastructure. She says the incumbent commissioners have been "asleep at the wheel" on data center deals.
  • Money: Clean Elections participant. Per campaign finance reports cited October 13, 2026: raised $165,197, spent nearly all of it, $391 on hand at that report.

Mike Cease (Green)

Chemical engineer; a Green Party officer and repeat candidate who also ran for this commission in 2024. He won the Green nomination as a write-in candidate with 213 votes.

  • On the record: no fundraising totals or detailed platform for Cease appeared in the major-outlet coverage we reviewed, and he is the only candidate of the five not reported as a Clean Elections participant. We will add his platform here from his campaign's own materials if they can be verified; we do not summarize a candidate we cannot source.

Why everyone is on public financing: the 2014 history

This commission's elections have a documented dark money past. Documents APS released under commission subpoenas in 2019 confirmed its parent company, Pinnacle West, gave nearly $10.7 million to groups that spent in the 2014 commission elections, including about $450,000 helping elect two commissioners, without the source being disclosed at the time. That history is the reason every major candidate in 2026 is running on Clean Elections public financing, and it is the background against which this year's finance complaints are being fought.

Verification notes

  • Democratic primary vote totals differ slightly between tabulations (Pratte about 432,000, Hill about 378,000); the percentages, 53.4 and 46.6, agree across sources. Exact counts will be replaced with the Secretary of State canvass figures.
  • Mike Cease's status is described inconsistently across sources: ballot listings include him in the five-candidate general election field after his write-in primary win, while one outlet describes him as a write-in in the general as well. His printed-ballot status should be confirmed against the Secretary of State's certified candidate list.
  • Fundraising figures come from state filings as cited by local outlets in October 2026 and may treat Clean Elections disbursements differently from campaign to campaign. The roughly $370,000 figure is the full Clean Elections package for commission candidates this cycle, primary and general combined.

How to vote without getting your ballot rejected

  • Mail it by Tuesday, October 27, 2026. After that day, do not mail it: use a drop box or a vote center.
  • It must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Postmarks do not count.
  • Sign and date the affidavit envelope, and write a current phone number on it. If your signature is questioned, the county needs to reach you.
  • In this race you may vote for up to two candidates. Voting for just one is allowed. Voting for three is an overvote, and none of your votes in this race would count, though the rest of your ballot still would.
  • Leaving any item blank is allowed and does not affect the rest of your ballot.

Sources

Ballot Math: analysis only, no endorsements. Every candidate in this race got the same template: record, money, stated priorities, sources. Back to Ballot Math home.