Overview
- Preliminary results released Tuesday night by Maricopa County put Brooke St. George at about 29% and Bobby Nichols at about 25%, with incumbents Berdetta Hodge at roughly 23.8% and Jennifer Adams at about 21.9%.
- The early totals cover mail, dropbox and ballots processed before election day; ballots cast in person on May 19, provisional ballots and signatures that can be cured still must be tallied before results are certified.
- The contest was driven by fights over homelessness, affordable housing and development and by a disputed special events ordinance that Nichols helped lead a signature campaign to repeal; the council later repealed that ordinance and is drafting a replacement.
- Outside groups paid for out-of-state mailers and texts that attacked Nichols and St. George as socialists, and Nichols ran openly with Democratic Socialists of America ties and a Bernie Sanders endorsement while advocating rent control, more affordable housing and expanded transit funded by tax increases.
- If certified, the two winners will join Arlene Chin on the seven-member council and be sworn in on July 11 for four-year terms, a shift that could change council priorities but would represent only two votes on a body that has often voted in unison.