Frustration with rising electricity bills and data centers helped Democrats win control of Georgia's utility regulator on Tuesday, and make gains on Arizona's.
Democrats Shelia Edwards and Peter Hubbard won, giving the party a 3-2 Georgia Public Service Commission majority, its first in decades, the Georgia Recorder reported. Out West, Democrats Clara Pratte and Jonathon Hill lead in unofficial returns for two Corporation Commission seats, though Republicans would keep a 3-2 majority there, the Arizona Capitol Times reported.
"And everyone said the same thing: The utility bill is too damn high," Edwards said, according to Atlanta News First.
Georgia voters already ousted two Republican commissioners in 2025. The board had signed off on six rate hikes over three years, adding $43 a month to the average household's electricity bill, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
In July 2025, the commission voted to freeze Georgia Power's rates through 2028, according to its website.
The freeze applies only to base rates, not fuel or storm costs, Georgia Power said in a July 2025 release.
Once the new majority is seated, commissioners plan to open an Affordability Docket looking at what families can afford and how the grid costs of data centers get split, Atlanta News First reported.
"We campaigned on making affordability our number one priority, and we're going to follow through on that promise," Hill told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a Friday statement.
"We believe household ratepayers should not pay a dime for the cost of electricity, water or infrastructure used by data centers," Pratte said in a Friday statement to the DCNF.
In a Thursday campaign statement, Hill said Arizona voters "decided they couldn't afford to keep electing the same people."
Republicans Kevin Thompson, a sitting commissioner, and state Rep. Ralph Heap have both conceded the Corporation Commission races, the Capitol Times reported. Heap pinned the loss on rate hikes. (RELATED: Voters Get Rare Say Over Who Sets Their Electric Rates)
"People can't tolerate double-digit rate increases, and you've got double-digit rate increases, and you've got the utilities making massive profits," Heap told the outlet. "So it's pretty clear that people feel like the Corporation Commission hasn't really been on their side, and I think that's probably true."
I’m proud of what we have accomplished the last four years. The voters have spoken and have elected for change; I take comfort in knowing this wasn’t personal. I’m looking forward to getting back to focusing on my family and business. Thank you Arizona.
— Kevin Thompson (@VoteKThompson) November 5, 2026
The current commission will decide Arizona Public Service's pending rate request in December, Corporation Commission Public Information Officer Nicole Garcia said in a Nov. 3 statement to the DCNF.
"Tuesday's election will have no impact on the final vote," Garcia added.
The winners will be sworn in early January, she said in a Friday statement to the DCNF.
Hubbard beat Fitz Johnson, the Republican commissioner he unseated in 2025, with about 56 percent of the vote, while Edwards topped Republican Josh Tolbert with about 55 percent, according to the Georgia secretary of state's unofficial count.
President Donald Trump carried both Georgia and Arizona in 2024.
Hubbard and Georgia Power did not respond to the DCNF's requests for comment.
H. Sterling Burnett, director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the free-market Heartland Institute, told the DCNF the results were "just part of the blue wave" but that voters were "angry at rising utility costs."
"Democrats got smart; they stopped talking about climate change. What did they talk about? Affordability," Burnett said.
"And the Republicans, I think, made the same claims, but the problem is the Republicans were in power while the prices were high, so people didn't trust them," he continued.
"Electricity costs were already prominent in the 2025 special elections, so I think it's fair to assume that anxiety over power bills reinforced the broader political tides," J. Thomas Perdue, a policy analyst at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, told the DCNF in a statement.
Travis Fisher, director of energy and environmental policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, addressed data center fights in a Thursday statement to the DCNF.
"Newly elected leaders shouldn't have to choose between affordable electricity for their residents and economic development for the business community," Fisher said.
Edwards will take office Jan. 1, 2027, giving Democrats a 3-2 majority, a Georgia Public Service Commission spokesman said in a Friday statement to the DCNF.
"We respect the will of Georgia's voters, and we hope those elected will serve all of Georgia," the Georgia Republican Party said in an unsigned statement on Tuesday's results, the Recorder reported.
The new majority will work alongside Democratic Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms, who wants state approvals of new data centers paused for now until consumers are protected, Atlanta News First reported.
Outside groups spent more than $5 million on the two Georgia races, with pro-industry groups putting more than $3 million behind Tolbert, the AJC reported.
Climate groups brought in more than $2 million to help Democrats, including Hubbard and Edwards, the outlet added.
Edwards said that she ran on curbing repeated rate hikes and ending utility shutoffs during extreme cold and heat, Atlanta News First reported.
To open the Affordability Docket, a commissioner would first raise it at a committee meeting, which takes place every other Thursday, the spokesman said Friday.
Commissioners would then vote at the next administrative session, which meets every other Tuesday, he noted.
"A simple majority of the five Commissioners would approve any new docket," he said.
"What I'm looking to do with the majority on the commission is to work to lower folks' power bills using clean energy and make sure that we're holding data centers accountable," Hubbard said at an Atlanta Press Club debate, according to the Georgia Recorder.
"I look forward to helping fulfill Southern Company's goal of net zero emissions by 2050," he said in a statement, the outlet reported.
Burnett predicted the new majority would push wind and solar power, leaving residents with "rising prices and less reliability." (RELATED: Texans Elect Democrat Governor Who Vowed To Freeze Data Center Construction)
"I'll be absolutely stunned if they don't come out in favor of wind and solar. And if they do, then they're telling you we really don't care about affordability or reliability," he said.
"Georgia's electricity rates are below the national average for a reason. They've had reliable power," Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, told the DCNF.
Georgia homes paid 15.90 cents per kilowatt-hour on average in August, compared with 18.16 nationally, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Pyle said Georgia's commissioners "would be wise to not rock the boat in a significant way."
The commission says on its website that rules passed in 2024 and 2025 "ensure NO residents or small businesses will see increases on their power bills due to data centers."
Georgia Power's next rate case is due in June 2028, and analysts and consultants will then go through all of its billing methods, data centers included, the commission spokesman said Friday.
Georgia already has rules meant to make big power users pay the added cost of serving them, Perdue said. A review could look at how well they are working, he added.
"I would be concerned if reviews reinforced an overly-skeptical attitude toward data centers and resulted in open-ended delays or broad moratoriums," he cautioned.
Regulators can already charge data centers for the grid upgrades they need under existing rules, Fisher said.
"That has a mixed track record and may not reduce voters' anxiety," he said.
He pointed instead to private grids for data centers, which Ohio and Utah allow. That puts the costs and risks on new developers rather than on current utility customers, he said.
Arizona Public Service originally asked for a net increase of $579.52 million, or nearly 14 percent, in its June 2025 filing, according to its public notice.
It now seeks a net increase of $608.7 million under testimony filed in May, APS and parent company Pinnacle West said in a Nov. 3 quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Under that original request, a typical household using 1,000 kilowatt-hours would see its monthly bill go up by about $20, APS says on its website.
Pratte said in a Thursday statement that voters "forcefully rejected another four years of soaring utility prices."
In her Friday statement, she also faulted the sitting commissioners for letting data center negotiations take place behind closed doors.
"Even though Clara and I will be in the minority, two Commissioners can have a big impact," Hill said in his Thursday statement.
Both Democrats have vowed to oppose any formula rate plan, which would let a utility adjust its prices every year through a shorter review rather than a full rate case, the Capitol Times reported.
APS, which has asked for such a plan, says on its website that the annual adjustments would be smaller and could either raise or lower customers' prices.
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