Arizona
Latino voters want more action on climate and clean energy in Arizona, new poll finds
Arizona group promotes citizenship, voter registration and turnout
The Mi Familia Vota team shares with The Republic’s weekly news show how they connect with the community to get out the vote.
In Arizona, the 2020 Latino vote was decisive.
And this November, Arizona’s Latinos may be more motivated than ever by climate and clean energy issues, a new poll by the environmental justice organization Chispa AZ suggests. More than 70% of the poll’s 520 registered voter respondents expressed concern about climate change and 60% support Arizona increasing clean energy requirements for electric utilities.
Those views could make a difference, analysts say, in a state where fewer than 11,000 votes pushed President Joe Biden across the finish line in 2020 to beat incumbent Donald Trump and become the first Democrat to win the state since 1996. Only Georgia had a narrower margin in the popular vote count in that first matchup of this year’s presumptive presidential candidates.
A report by the University of California Los Angeles’s Latino Policy and Politics Initiative determined much of that 2020 nudge of Arizona’s political lever from red to blue came from high-density Latino precincts. That demographic has only grown in the state since, and nonpartisan voter registration efforts seek to further amplify the Latino voice.
Latinos are expected to cast more than 855,000 votes in Arizona this election cycle, according to the NALEO Educational Fund, a 57% increase over 2016 numbers. With the intervening eight years also bringing dozens of broken heat records, skyrocketing heat-associated deaths, worsened drought and higher energy demands to the state — all exacerbated by the heat-trapping influence of greenhouse gases emitted primarily by burning fossil fuels — that increase comes with a shift in priorities.
More for Latino voters: Latino voter campaign ramps up in battleground Arizona and Nevada
Polling ahead of the 2022 midterms by Univision in collaboration with Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University suggested that inflation, abortion, jobs and gun safety were top issues for Latino voters in Arizona the last time they headed for national polls. A majority of those surveyed favored liberal candidates’ solutions.
Now, following Arizona’s boom in solar installation jobs and escalating impacts of climate change like heat and asthma that disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities, the Chispa AZ poll indicates Arizona’s Latino vote may align even more with what Democrats are offering.
With Latinos making up nearly a quarter of expected voters in this key battleground state, that means the selection of the next leader of the free world could hinge on policies related to Arizona’s scorched and sunny climate.
Arizona’s Latino voters show strong support for climate and clean energy
Working with Embold Research, Chispa AZ advertised its 27-question poll in April to registered voters who live in Arizona and identify as Latino via text messages and social media posts. Of the 520 people who participated, 55% identified as Democrats, 32% as Republicans and 13% as Independents. A majority were between the ages of 18 and 34. The research was funded by donations to Chispa AZ, a 501(c)(4) branch of the League of Conservation Voters, and by pro-democracy groups, said Nuvia Enriquez, the organization’s communications director.
The primary motivation for the poll, Enriquez said, was to gauge awareness within this demographic about the actions and relevance of the Arizona Corporation Commission, the state’s five elected utility regulators who vote to approve new gas or renewable energy projects, set statewide goals for energy efficiency and clean electricity generation and determine incentives like the “value of solar,” or homeowner buyback rates for rooftop solar energy.
Regulators reconsider solar incentives: Corporation Commission reopens ‘value of solar’ rate discussions despite strong opposition
Only 36% of people surveyed indicated they were familiar with the ACC. After then reading short descriptions of the entity’s recent actions, a majority opposed regulators’ 2022 decision to halt a rule that would have required Arizona utilities to generate 15% of electricity from clean sources by 2025, their 2023 addition of a monthly charge to residential rooftop solar customers and recent rate increases at the state’s largest electricity provider.
These responses align with values Arizona Latinos expressed in answer to other poll questions, including 63% who view the state’s reliance on coal and gas as a serious problem, 63% who are concerned about pollution from electricity generation and 59% who feel the state is moving too slowly toward cleaner options like wind and solar.
When asked about specific energy sources, from 84% to 67% of people surveyed indicated support for rooftop solar, solar farms, hydroelectricity and wind farms, in that order. Support for fossil fuel-based energy sources was somewhat lower, with 64% to 34% of respondents indicating support for natural gas, nuclear plants, coal and methane (which is the main ingredient of natural gas — that distinction was left unclear in poll questions).
The poll’s strongest consensus was a 93% agreement that the rising cost of electricity is a serious problem. This is despite Arizona’s lower-than-average electricity costs compared to other states, according to recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Enriquez said the results will be used to inform Chispa AZ’s upcoming communication efforts, which she said will “continue as long as the (Arizona Corporation Commission) is making bad decisions.”
“A key aspect of this awareness campaign is to just make sure people know who is having power over their lives,” she said.
Who will voters give power over Arizona’s power sources?
This year’s presidential race will determine who has power over future power generation between two candidates who could arguably not be further apart on climate and clean energy issues. The same divide is true farther down the ballot.
Trump has repeatedly used the phrase “drill, baby drill” to affirm support for burning more of the fossil fuels scientists (and oil companies) have long understood to be causing rising average temperatures and costly drought, crop failures and wildfires, including at the Republican National Convention earlier this week.
The former president is also under investigation by the U.S. Senate Budget and Finance committees for alleged promises to oil companies to roll back environmental regulations and climate policies to streamline drilling access in exchange for $1 billion in donations to his campaign. His previous administration weakened at least 74 environmental protections, as tabulated by the nonpartisan research organization the Brookings Institution.
The Biden administration, on the other hand, has taken historic action on climate and environmental justice issues with the passage of the $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022 which has brought more than $10 billion and 14,000 jobs to Arizona in climate and clean energy investments as of March, according to the research and advocacy organization Climate Power. While not all Arizonans support this priority in the White House, some youth groups in the state feel Biden could be doing even more to address the consequences of climate change that will impact them most.
Beyond that top race, the candidates running for the U.S. Senate seat left open by Sen. Kyrsten Synema, I-Ariz., also vastly differ on climate and energy issues.
Republican candidate Kari Lake has echoed Trump’s enthusiasm for drilling and cutting environmental safeguards while accepting large campaign donations from the oil and natural gas industries.
In contrast, her Democratic opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego, voted for Biden’s IRA and lists the environment as a priority for his campaign, though his website does not spell out many details and his response to recent questions from The Arizona Republic about his top issues mentioned abortion and immigration but not climate or clean energy. Green party candidates Mike Norton and Eduardo Quintana were the only ones to mention climate in their responses to The Republic. Lake did not provide answers.
Both Lake and Gallego recently courted the Latino vote in Arizona with targeted campaign events, though Lake’s Latino-themed event did not appear to attract many Hispanics.
Democracy is a two-way street
With more than three months to go before election day and the Democratic presidential candidate not yet officially confirmed, a lot could still shift in what the world will see from Arizona voters, perhaps especially from the state’s Latino communities.
Stephen Nuno-Perez, a professor of politics and international affairs at Northern Arizona University who helped direct the polling with ASU and Univision ahead of the 2022 midterms, will track it closely. He plans to head into the field after the primary in late July to survey Latinos and perhaps also non-Latinos, depending on funding, about the issues most important to them.
Nuno-Perez is particularly interested in understanding how attitudes about climate change have evolved over the last two years. He told The Republic he was not surprised by the results of Chispa AZ’s poll and thinks unclean water, heat and asthma are consistent concerns for Arizona’s Latinos even if they don’t always associate them with a warming climate.
“One of the reasons we’re doing more survey work on climate change is because it’s an identifying issue for Democrats,” Nuno-Perez said. “It used to be immigration where the Democrats could say ‘Clearly we’re on your side, clearly we are different than Republicans.’ In the last four years, climate change and the environment has become one of those issues where Democrats can go to Latinos and say ‘We are the party for you.’”
Our latest energy investigation: In sunny Arizona, a relocated gas plant ignites questions over who profits and who pays
With Latinos now also broadly supporting abortion rights and working solar installation jobs, Nuno-Perez thinks this demographic could be heard in a big way in November, not because the system has done a better job of integrating and listening to them, but “more just the fact that there are more Latinos than there have been.”
“I think one of the things that makes Latinos so pivotal is that they’re an emerging group,” Nuno-Perez said. “Even though Arizona has a long relationship with Latinos in the United States and Latinos have been here before Arizona (was a state), it’s one of the groups that tends to be less engaged, largely because the system is less engaged with Latinos. Our democracy is not a one-way street.”
Joe Garcia, Chicanos Por La Causa’s director of public policy and leader of the nonpartisan organization’s “Get out the vote” campaign, aims to increase Latino engagement by going after “low propensity voters” to help get that traffic of the democratic process flowing in both directions so it can better address the needs of all Arizonans.
Speaking to The Republic from the Unidos Conference in Nevada, the other swing state where CPLC has launched a Latino voter registration campaign, Garcia said he views getting more Latinos to vote as part of Arizona’s “maturation process” toward becoming representative of its residents.
“You look at the state Legislature now, there are so many Latino-elected officials, whereas one time only a couple of decades ago, there’s just a couple,” he said.
CPLC’s nonpartisan efforts to register more Latino voters regardless of how they might vote could shake things up beyond what current polling of already-registered voters can predict. Garcia doesn’t think this would be because Latino communities diverge much culturally from white communities, but because they tend to be younger and to therefore align with the issues important to people who are not yet established and are more concerned about the future. That may be why the Latino vote, when activated, often buoys Democrats.
Read our climate series: The latest from Joan Meiners at azcentral on climate change
Like Chispa AZ, Garcia wants Arizona’s Latinos to be more informed about murkier governmental entities like the Arizona Corporation Commission, to talk about the issues and to feel less intimidated about the ballot. He acknowledged that many Latinos, and young people in general, are feeling disillusioned by the options for president, causing them to think “I’m not going to vote. I’ve seen this movie, and I don’t like either of them.”
That’s why he thinks it’s critical to raise awareness about down-ballot contests and propositions rather than focusing on individual candidates, which, as a nonpartisan organization, they avoid discussing anyway. With that approach, both parties will be forced to listen to what younger people want for their children and grandchildren, he said, which is important because issues like climate change “will be here for a long, long time.”
“The trick is not letting them become so jaded that they decide not to vote at all,” Garcia said. “That’s the danger.”
Joan Meiners is the climate news and storytelling reporter at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Before becoming a journalist, she completed a doctorate in ecology. Follow Joan on Twitter at @beecycles or email her at joan.meiners@arizonarepublic.com. Read more of her coverage at environment.azcentral.com.
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Arizona
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MESA – Mary Salcedo is the executive director of Arizona Roller Derby, but everyone on the team knows her as MaryMorphosis, or Morph for short.
A derby name is as good as a legal name once you join a league. Arizona Roller Derby – the second-oldest flat track roller derby league in the world – has plenty of unique monikers on its two home and travel teams.
During a doubleheader homestand, players introduce themselves.
“What’s your name?”
“Mecca,” said Sara Mecca-Whitlock, an interior architect in Phoenix.
“Brooklyn Dodge-her,” said Kristi Baptiste, a grandma and senior project manager from Ventura, California.
The rules surrounding derby names are loose. Some players have nicknames bestowed upon them when they join.
“Since I was wearing a Brooklyn shirt, they started calling me Brooklyn, and we added the Dodge-her later,” Baptiste said. “The funny thing is, I am not an L.A. Dodger fan. I don’t even watch baseball.”
It’s clear Roller Derby isn’t like other organized sports. There is no professional threshold to work toward as a goal. Players show up year after year, paying to participate, paying to travel and returning to the community they find along the way.
Across the country, including in Phoenix, teams find a way to organize players and facilities to play the sport.
Selecting derby names is part of the process.
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MAXimum HOverdrive of the Bad News Beaters poses for a photo as she skates at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News) -
Goldy Knocks, left, and Hella Naughty of the Bad News Beaters pose after their match at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News) -
Bad News Beaters skater Dr. Doctor flashes a hand sign while posing for a photo at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News)
“Sure, man,” said Rachel Sherman, a 13-year veteran of Arizona Roller Derby and an electrician training in an apprentice program. “My dad, with the perfect dad joke, was like, ‘Well, I guess if you’re going to change your name, you should probably change your number to four. So I am four sure, man.”
Elaina Bryan, a 25-year-old receptionist in Phoenix and lifelong derby player, said her nickname is Squeezer.
“There was a particular one of my mom’s friends, who I would give a really good squeeze, big hug to,” Bryan said. “So my name actually used to be a little squeezer, but now that I’m an adult, it’s just squeezer.”
The names used outside of derby are not relevant on the track. Official rosters are submitted only with the players’ derby names.
“You think about the parts of you that you want to foster that can handle the intensity, the eyes on you, the attention, the strength, the perseverance and determination,” Sure, man said. “You give that a name and it becomes this kind of alter ego that then you’re allowing it to blossom and grow in this space.”
Roller Derby’s history
Roller derby was officially born on Aug.13, 1935, when promoter Leo Seltzer debuted the first Transcontinental Roller Derby event at the Chicago Coliseum. Initially created as endurance marathons during the Great Depression, the event evolved into the full-contact sport we know today.
After peaking in popularity on television in the 1950s and 60s, the sport largely faded out, but in 2001, a modern revival took place in Austin, Texas, which popularized the grassroots, flat-track format that is played globally today.
“We (will) hit our 25th season in 2028, which is pretty significant,” MaryMorphosis said, “We’re hoping to go out huge.”
Arizona Roller Derby is older than the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which was founded in 2004 as the United Leagues Coalition and formally changed its name to the WFTDA in 2005. WFTDA is the international governing body of the sport. Today, it has over 400 member leagues on six continents.
Arizona Roller Derby doesn’t compete on a bank track. They can play on any flat surface if they have a way to lay down track boundaries.
A bank track is a raised and curved surface, like a NASCAR track. It’s the kind of roller derby played in the 2009 movie with Elliot Page, “Whip it.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Arizona Roller Derby lost the warehouse space it rented full-time and the participation numbers dwindled. Now the group rents temporary spaces across the East Valley to accommodate practices and competitions, like Saturday’s doubleheader.
“I would hope that we would have our own space again, “ MaryMorphosis said. “We need to double our membership to do that.”
On a Saturday afternoon in June, players began arriving at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa. The same people that would be competing on track in a few hours used thin rope and white electrical tape to lay down the track borders on top of the gymnasium hardwood.
The rules
The Saturday doubleheader featured two Arizona Roller Derby home teams, and two travel teams from California.
Bad News Beaters are the first home team. They go against the West Coast Derby Knockouts.
Derby games last one hour. Two 30-minute halves are broken up by a 15-minute intermission. The intensity on the track lasts for two-minute jams before lines switch off and new players sub in for the next jam.
Mecca, a jammer on Bad News Beaters, points out that “there’s four blockers from each team that get on the track and one jammer from each team.”
A jammer’s helmet cover, a large polyester cap with stars on both sides, indicates they are the one person on the track who can score points for their team.
One blocker is known as the pivot. They wear a similar, bright-colored cap, but theirs has a line running through the center. At any point, a jammer can remove their star and pass it to the pivot. For the remainder of the jam, the pivot acts as the Jammer to score points.
“I’m a pushy jammer, and I like being strong,” MaryMorphosis said, “and I like breaking people apart.”
The jammers line up behind a jam line while the eight blockers stand anywhere in the box in front of the jam line but behind the pivot line.
Waiting in the box is Californian blocker Brooklyn Dodge-her, and her daughter, Rocky Bye Baby. They are there to throw their bodies into the Bad News Beaters jammer to stop them from scoring points.
Brooklyn Dodge-her was recruited to derby 12 years ago. She volunteers as a coach for the West Coast Derby youth travel team on top of training and competing herself.
“Mondays for the kids, Tuesday for myself. Wednesday I get a break,” Brooklyn said. “Thursday for myself. Friday for the kids. Saturday if we don’t have a game, I get free. And Sunday in the morning it’s the kids and in the evening it’s the adults.”
At 51, she is competing in her last season of roller derby.
“I became a grandmother,” Brooklyn said. “I have to start spending some time with a grandbaby. I’ll probably get bored and be like, ‘Y’all want me back?’”
The officials blow the whistle to signal the start of a jam and the jammers push off their line straight into the bodies in front of them.
“If I get through the pack first I get what’s called lead jammer,” Mecca said. “On the second time through, they get one point for every blocker from the opposite team that they pass legally with their hips. That can go for two minutes.”
The lead jammer can call off the jam at any point, especially if it prevents the other jammer from scoring any points for the opposing team.
“Does it matter if the jammer is behind me? Do I have two or more blockers in the box? Then don’t call it,” MaryMorphosis said, “because it might be worth losing the points just to have your teammates out.”
A player in the penalty box at the end of a jam will remain in the box during the start of the next jam.
The ways to receive penalties include hitting someone in the head, hitting someone in the back, or getting back on the track in front of somebody that was in front of you when you left. All penalties must be served for 30 seconds.
A game requires a whopping seven skating referees and even more non-skating officials. Those positions are entirely filled by volunteers.
Robert Cushman began 17 years ago in Nebraska when his wife started competing in roller derby. Years after their divorce, he continues to enjoy participating in the sport while living in Tucson.
“Most of us don’t get paid anything,” Cushman said. “Usually Phoenix will give us like a gas stipend.”
Even as an official he uses a derby name. He goes by Manosaur, a reference to the animated series “Venture Bros.”
“I usually go once a week to the scrimmage down in Tucson, and then I usually come up here for whatever games they have,” Cushman said.
During jams, Manosaur skates around the inside of the track, monitoring the action to keep the play fair.
“Watch the pack,” Mecca said. “Don’t worry too much about the jammer when they’re by themselves. But once we enter the pack again, then it gets crazy.”
Mecca is a mom of five who started playing roller derby in North Carolina. She said she retired for six years as she finished up her military career and went back to school. Eventually she began coaching the ASU derby team. Two years ago, she began playing again.
The West Coast Derby Knockouts dominated, 223-53.
“They were taking the pivot line constantly instead of the jam line,” MaryMorphosis said after the game. “They were just really big. And both our blockers and our jammers were thrown off.”
Game two
Morph sits in the stands after the early afternoon loss and watches the second match of the day. The home team, Skate Riot Project, took on Orange County Roller Derby.
She became executive director in January and takes on the administrative responsibilities on top of competing and working full time.
“I love building and growing community,” MaryMorphosis said. “It was an opportunity to do that and step into just a significant leadership role.”
She began playing derby in 2022 when she still lived in upstate New York.
“I broke my leg three months in,” MaryMorphosis said, “like shattered it. Recovery was rough.”
After two surgeries and a cross-country move to start a new job as a project manager at Arizona State’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, MaryMorphosis had her first uninterrupted derby season in 2025.
“I don’t know what kept me coming back,” she said. “I guess it was the community.”
Meanwhile, Elaina Bryan, or Squeezer, is another recent Arizona transplant and a blocker on Skate Riot Project.
“My mom started playing back in 2008, actually, and we went to practices with her,” Squeezer said. “Eventually, they had enough kids’ interest that they started a kids team.”
She was 9 when she started playing in Bakersfield, California. She played on her college team and then moved to Arizona in October. Now she plays on a travel team as well as the home team.
“I was just kind of trying to see where I fit in and started to find people at that same level to start connecting with,” Squeezer said, “and just kind of started building up my social circle.”
Teams are comprised of players of all ages, but everyone is connected to the community that exists in Derby. It’s more everlasting than the final scores.
“I went to a yard sale,” Brooklyn Dodge-her said. “We didn’t even get across the street and they were like, ‘You want to play roller derby? It was a West Coast yard sale.”
MaryMorphosis did not hearing back from one roller league before she stumbled on the practice of another team.
“I was literally in the mall because my old league had taken over an Old Navy, and they were skating in the mall,” MaryMorphosis said. “I was buying yarn at Michael’s, and I was like, ‘OK, that’s the sign.’”
When Skate Riot Project lost to Orange County Roller Derby 125-100, the teams shook hands and huddled together. Orange County picked its MVP Jammer, blocker and MVP overall from SRP, and SRP picked its players from Orange County. They hugged each other as they presented the awards.
“We’re playing the game against another team, and it’s really intense and like we’re very serious and focused with our team,” Squeezer said. “But afterwards, we all hang out and we goof around.”
With the games over, the players begin clearing out the temporary space. The track gets peeled off the gymnasium floor and the tape is put into trash bags.
The four teams get in their cars and head to the after-party together.
“If the only thing we do for the next five years is become the place for people to be themselves, that’s a win,” MaryMorphosis said.
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LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Reno and Las Vegas are the two fastest-warming cities in the entire country.
Tonight we take a look at what neighboring Arizona is doing to address similar heat challenges, and whether those steps can work in Nevada.
Las Vegas has several areas called urban heat islands, which are hotter than the surrounding areas because of less vegetation, such as trees, and more concrete development.
Residents in East Las Vegas, one of the areas considered an urban heat island, say they’re not surprised that temperatures continue to rise, especially in their part of town.
“Definitely, when you go more to outskirts, there’s definitely more shade, more trees everywhere, but more in the center of town it’s very much less,” said Anthony Flores.
He believes there could be more relief from the heat.
“More water accessibility, more shade overall,” said Flores, whose line of work causes him to be outside every day. “I usually drink over two gallons of water a day just to keep not getting heat stroke.”
Charlie Ponce agrees with him.
“Definitely more trees that are useful, not like palm trees or anything like that. Parks that have like the water parks in them,” said Ponce. “Yeah, splash pads.”
Valley cities and Clark County have implemented steps like having cooling stations and tree-planting campaigns to help address heat challenges.
Phoenix and other parts of Arizona are also experiencing extreme heat every summer, as well as drought issues.
UNLV Public Policy Professor Dr. Ben Leffel says there are steps in the neighboring state that can be useful here in Nevada, where temperatures historically continue to be on the rise.
“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Dr. Leffel. “And that’s then also that first responders are equipped with chilled IV therapy and cold water immersion and things like that.”
News 3 spoke with heat mitigation and management experts in Arizona to see what they believe has been working for them.
One thing they mentioned was that Arizona has the first state-level chief heat officer.
“We have much better and much more accurate numbers now about who’s actually getting sick and who’s dying from heat-related deaths, and what the causes and kind of contributing factors are. So, if you don’t track something, you can’t understand what’s going on with it,” said Dr. Ladd Keith, Heat Resilience Initiative Director at the University of Arizona.
Ponce thinks it would help in Las Vegas.
“Like, let them know to tell the public like, hey, in these areas it’s getting out of hand, and this is what we can do as a community, or just have someone like regulated or watch over it,” she said.
And the city of Phoenix also has an entire heat office, something that can be beneficial on a local level, like being able to coordinate between different groups like homeless outreach, the hospitals, etcetera.
“Statewide coordination of cooling centers, lessons learned that are shared across different working groups, and so just a lot of cooperation that really creates a lot of efficiency too, and so I think that’s an important thing to note, is there is a cost to this, but the efforts are saving lives, and I think it’s making government more efficient,” said Keith.
Amy Scoville-Weaver, the Healthy Cities Program Director in Arizona for The Nature Conservancy, says the Phoenix Metro has done well with increasing vegetation, including in areas where there’s drought.
“So we’re looking at supporting and planting hardy trees, drought-tolerant trees, trees that are already designed, designed to live and thrive in water-scarce environments,” said Scoville-Weaver.
She says they also look at improving infrastructure to support it.
“So when it does rain, the water doesn’t just go down asphalt, get polluted, and go through a storm drain; rather, that water is being diverted to vegetation that needs it,” said Scoville-Weaver.
Leffel says another thing to keep in mind is heat safety can also come from indoor policies.
“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” he said.
A new Nevada law that went into effect last week requires larger jurisdictions to come up with heat mitigation plans.
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