PHOENIX — Water is no longer a side issue in Arizona’s November elections. Groundwater — who can pump it, who can move it, and who gets to build homes on it — is shaping the governor’s race, legislative control and at least one local ballot fight in the desert west of Phoenix.
Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat seeking reelection, has made “Arizona’s water is for Arizonans” a campaign refrain after clashing with federal Colorado River talks this year. Republican nominee Andy Biggs is promising a sharper break from recent Arizona Department of Water Resources moves that paused some Phoenix-area housing relying solely on groundwater after ADWR’s “unmet demand” modeling.
Those ADWR steps — and an Alternative Designation of Assured Water Supply program builders labeled a “water tax” — are already in Maricopa County Superior Court after home builders and GOP lawmakers sued. A judge has struck down key pieces, though final orders are still pending. Hobbs’s team talks about legal options; Biggs says he would scrap the rules if elected.
Rural basins are writing their own chapters. Near McMullen Valley, residents are gathering signatures for a special March election that would ask voters whether to create an Active Management Area — a local push that followed the failure of House Bill 2758, which critics feared would have eased water exports toward central Arizona providers.
With the nearly 45-year-old Groundwater Management Act under strain and Colorado River shortages already biting surface supplies, the Nov. 3 outcome could decide whether 2027 brings tougher rural tools, a rollback of metro growth limits, or more years of courtroom trench warfare while aquifers keep dropping.