Jonathon Hill

Jonathon Hill was born in Kingman, Arizona, and lives in Tempe, Arizona. Hill earned a high school diploma from Brophy College Preparatory, attended Arizona State University, and earned bachelor's degrees in aerospace engineering and Russian in 2005, a master's degree in aerospace engineering in 2009, a master's degree in geological sciences in 2016, and a doctorate in geological sciences in 2022. His career experience includes working as an engineer, organizer, and scientist with the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University.[1][2] Hill has been affiliated wth the American Geophysical Union.[3][4]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Born in Kingman, I’m a lifelong Arizonan and have spent the past 20 years at Arizona State University working as an engineer and geologist on multiple NASA missions. I have a deep understanding of energy, infrastructure, and groundwater challenges and felt a call to use my knowledge to serve the people of Arizona. The current Arizona Corporation Commissioners have allowed Arizonans’ electric utility bills in our state to soar 42% in five years, failed to do their job as a watchdog to protect consumers and agreed to secret, sweetheart deals with data centers - like Project Blue in Tucson. I’m running to bring a scientist’s perspective to the Commission, with the expertise and foresight to ask tough questions of utility companies, protect hardworking Arizonans from rising costs, and ensure a reliable, sustainable energy and water future for our state.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Stop Rising Utility Costs: Families across Arizona are struggling with rising electricity and water costs while utilities continue reporting large profits. The current Commission has failed to aggressively scrutinize rate hikes. As a Corporation Commissioner, I will make affordability a top priority by fighting to ensure all rate decisions put Arizona families first.Limit Data Centers: The current Corporation Commission failed to prepare for the completely predictable rise in energy demand from Arizona’s economic growth. Instead, they engaged in sweetheart deals with billion-dollar data center companies and are not doing enough to ensure that they pay their fair share. If I am elected to the Commission, I will fight for transparency, strict water and energy usage rules, and common-sense rates for large load customers so Arizona residents and small business owners are not subsidizing data centers and AI companies. It’s why my running mate Clara Pratte and I have made our real human campaign pledge - committing that everything on our campaigns will be made by real people, not AI powered by data centers.Protect Our Water: In addition to regulating over 350 water companies across Arizona, the Corporation Commission monitors drought and conservation planning - a responsibility that they have failed to adequately do. The Commission’s inability to plan ahead contributed to worsening drought conditions. If elected, I will prioritize proactive measures to protect our remaining water resources. We need to factor water scarcity into utility rate decisions, heavily monitor shortages and resource planning across Arizona, and prepare emergency conservation plans should this drought continue to drag on, as we suspect it will.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Energy reliability and affordability, infrastructure modernization, and water security for every community in Arizona.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I greatly admire Dr. Sian Proctor for her work at South Mountain Community College encouraging and enabling young women to attend college and pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), as well as her professional accomplishments as the pilot of the first all-civilian mission to orbit, Inspiration4.

Although Sian is a fellow graduate of ASU’s Geological Sciences PhD program, our paths did not cross until 2018 when she invited me to speak about my experiences working on NASA missions at a women-in-STEM conference at SMCC. I was extremely impressed by the programs she had built to help underserved students in the community college system learn how to pursue careers in STEM, her dedication to the success of her students and the admiration her students had for her.

Shortly after that, Sian was selected to serve on the crew of the Inspiration4 mission and in 2021 became the first woman of color to pilot a spacecraft. Although her dream of becoming an astronaut with NASA never came to pass, she stuck with her passion and eventually achieved her dream, just through a different route than she had planned… a lesson in perseverance that we can all learn from.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Elected officials need to act with integrity and transparency. They must act in the best interest of the public, not themselves. Elected officials need to be accessible to the people they represent.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The Arizona Corporation Commission exists to regulate public service corporations. Commissioners walk a fine line of balancing consumer costs with utility reliability, working to minimize costs while maintaining reliable infrastructure.

What legacy would you like to leave?

The Boy Scouts campsite rule says to always leave a campsite better than the way you found it. I think we should all strive to do the same in our personal and professional lives.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was working as a bagger at the Smitty’s grocery store down the street from our house. I worked there the entire summer between my freshman and sophomore years in high school. I was very proud to be earning my own money and used my first paycheck to buy a CD Walkman!

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I was always painfully shy as a kid and young adult. I eventually improved through many opportunities I had to teach people about the amazing discoveries made by the NASA Mars missions that I’ve worked on. Once I was able to overcome my shyness in those cases, I was able to expand that confidence to other areas of my life.

What responsibilities of this office do you personally consider the most important?

Making sure that Arizonans are charged fair, just and reasonable rates for their utilities.

Are there any little-known powers or responsibilities held by this office that you believe more people should be aware of?

The Commission has many lesser-known responsibilities, such as registering businesses and non-profits, railroad and pipeline safety, and regulating securities throughout the state.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Senator Mark Kelly

Attorney General Kris Mayes

Representative Adelita Grijalva

Representative Yassamin Ansari

Mayor Regina Romero

AFL-CIO

AFSCME

AZBTC

CWA

Ironworkers Local 75

Jane Fonda Climate PAC

Arizona College Democrats

Equality Arizona

Fight Corporate Monopolies

Keep AZ Blue Student Coalition

Lead Locally

Unity Rising

314 Action

What was the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember?

One of my earliest memories is the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986, which was a few months before my fourth birthday. I was too young to understand exactly what had happened, but I knew that everyone was very sad and that they kept talking about how brave the astronauts were and how important their work was. I think this left a very strong impression on my young mind and eventually led to my interest in space exploration.

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a native Arizonan, born in Kingman and raised in central Phoenix. Since 2000 I have lived, studied and worked in Tempe. For the last 18 years I have been a spacecraft engineer at ASU, where I have operated science instruments on NASA’s Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Odyssey satellite, and the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. I began my career on the engineering side of these missions with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering, but then decided to switch my focus to the geology side of the missions, and earned my master’s and doctorate degrees in Geological Sciences.

I am running because I believe we need more Commissioners with strong technical backgrounds, who understand the engineering and science behind power generation, water distribution, and groundwater management. The Corporation Commission is responsible for making many critical technical decisions, such as where power plants and transmission lines can be built and whether water companies have sufficient groundwater resources to provide for their current and future customers. Commissioners need to have the training and experience to properly evaluate the different options and make the best possible decisions.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Energy Affordability and Climate Resiliency:

Arizona has a golden opportunity in the 21st century to capitalize on the renewable energy resources available in Arizona, particularly solar and wind. As climate change continues to cause higher summer temperatures in our state, we must ensure that our power grid is resilient enough to handle those temperatures without compromising on affordability or reliability.Solar Industry Jobs:

Arizona offers many opportunities for solar energy generation, both utility-scale power plants and home-based panels. We should support this emerging industry, which generates power and creates jobs here in Arizona, rather than sending our money and jobs to other states.Utility Cybersecurity:

Public utilities are increasingly being attacked by amateur and professional hackers, which puts the public at risk of major service disruptions. Such disruptions could be deadly during our extreme summer heat, so we need to make sure our utility companies are taking the proper cybersecurity precautions to protect their computer networks.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Our modern society is only possible because of the safety, affordability and reliability of our utility grids. And here in Arizona, our very lives depend on the electricity and water delivered by our utilities. But these grids are very complex and require thousands of people to ensure their continued operation. I look forward to bringing my engineering and geology experience to the Commission to better regulate our utility grids and ensure they remain safe, affordable and reliable for generations to come.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I greatly admire Dr. Sian Proctor for her work at South Mountain Community College encouraging and enabling young women to attend college and pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), as well as her professional accomplishments as the pilot of the first all-civilian mission to orbit, Inspiration4.

Although Sian is a fellow graduate of ASU’s Geological Sciences PhD program, our paths did not cross until 2018 when she invited me to speak about my experiences working on NASA missions at a women-in-STEM conference at SMCC. I was extremely impressed by the programs she had built to help underserved students in the community college system learn how to pursue careers in STEM, her dedication to the success of her students and the admiration her students had for her.

Shortly after that, Sian was selected to serve on the crew of the Inspiration4 mission and in 2021 became the first woman of color to pilot a spacecraft. Although her dream of becoming an astronaut with NASA never came to pass, she stuck with her passion and eventually achieved her dream, just through a different route than she had planned… a lesson in perseverance that we can all learn from.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

One of my earliest memories is the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986, which was a few months before my fourth birthday. I was too young to understand exactly what had happened, but I knew that everyone was very sad and that they kept talking about how brave the astronauts were and how important their work was. I think this left a very strong impression on my young mind and eventually led to my interest in space exploration.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I worked as a bag boy at the old Smitty’s grocery store during the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in high school.

What responsibilities of this office do you personally consider the most important?

The Corporation Commission is the voice of Arizona’s utility consumers and is responsible for ensuring that the state’s monopolies charge fair prices for their services. Arizona is one of only 13 states with elected Commissioners. In most states they are simply appointed by the governor. This means that Arizona’s Commissioners are directly accountable to the state’s voters and have the responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interest of all Arizonans.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

The Corporation Commission is the voice of Arizona’s utility consumers and is responsible for ensuring that the state’s monopolies charge fair prices for their services. Arizona is one of only 13 states with elected Commissioners. In most states they are simply appointed by the governor. This means that Arizona’s Commissioners are directly accountable to the state’s voters and have the responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interest of all Arizonans.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

The most important quality for a Commissioner is, I believe, a drive to put forward the best of oneself in service of others. I believe my technical experience would be a valuable addition to the Corporation Commission and fill a key gap in the expertise of the ACC: my engineering background gives me a lot of insight into the challenges and opportunities facing our electrical and water distribution grids, while my geology background would help me effectively manage the groundwater resources that our rural water companies rely on to serve their customers.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

I am proud that my campaign has thus far been endorsed by Indivisible Sedona, the Sierra Club, AZ NOW PAC, Climate Cabinet, Ironworkers Local 75, the Democrats of the Red Rocks, the Communication Workers of Arizona (CWA) AZ, the Stonewall Democrats of Arizona, and the Democratic Women of Southeastern Arizona (DWSEA).

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

Our government officials are elected, first and foremost, to serve the voters who elected them. They are entrusted with managing our tax dollars and spending them wisely to benefit our society. But as the saying goes… trust but verify! Citizens must have easy access to the financials of our government agencies to serve as a check on their power, so that voters can make informed decisions when the time comes to decide whether to re-elect or replace our current leaders.

Campaign website

Hill’s campaign website stated the following:

Solar Jobs

Arizona is rich in opportunities for solar energy generation, both utility-scale power plants and home-based panels. We should support this emerging industry that generates power and creates jobs here in Arizona, rather than sending our money to other states.

Clean Elections

Jonathon is running as a Clean Elections candidate, so the people of Arizona will know exactly where his campaign funds have come from and can be certain that he is not being influenced by special interests.

Cybersecurity

Public utilities are increasingly coming under attack by both amateur and professional hackers, which puts the public at risk of major service disruptions. Jonathon will work with Arizona's utility companies to make sure they are taking the proper precautions to protect their computer systems from hackers and training their employees to recognize and prevent computer network breaches before they affect our public utilities.

Small Non-Profits

In addition to small businesses, small non-profits play a vital role in our society. They care for the less fortunate, provide informal and formal education to people of all ages, and provide support for those in need. Jonathon believes that the Corporation Commission should be doing more to streamline the process of creating and maintaining small non-profits in order to allow them to spend more of their time on the important work they do for our communities.

[5]

—Jonathon Hill’s campaign website (2024)[1]