Jonathon Hill (Arizona)

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Jonathon Hill

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Education

High school

Brophy College Preparatory

Bachelor's

Arizona State University, 2005

Graduate

Arizona State University, 2016

Ph.D

Arizona State University, 2022

Personal

Birthplace

Kingman, Ariz.

Profession

Research scientist

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Personal LinkedIn

Jonathon Hill (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Arizona Corporation Commission. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.

Hill completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Jonathon Hill was born in Kingman, Arizona, and lives in Tempe, Arizona. Hill earned a high school diploma from the 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. Hill has been affiliated wth the American Geophysical Union.

Elections

2024

See also: Arizona Corporation Commission election, 2024

General election

General election for Arizona Corporation Commission (3 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for Arizona Corporation Commission on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel Walden (R)	17.9	1,525,622
✔		Rene Lopez (R)	17.4	1,481,992
✔		Lea Marquez Peterson (R)	16.9	1,440,681
		Ylenia Aguilar (D)	15.7	1,336,868
		Jonathon Hill (D)	15.3	1,301,904
		Joshua Polacheck (D)	14.4	1,230,440
		Nina Luxenberg (G)	1.3	110,486
		Mike Cease (G)	1.2	101,473
		Frank Bertone (D) (Write-in)	0.0	144

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 8,529,610
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Arizona Corporation Commission (3 seats)

Ylenia Aguilar, Jonathon Hill, and Joshua Polacheck advanced from the Democratic primary for Arizona Corporation Commission on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ylenia Aguilar	35.9	414,130
✔		Jonathon Hill	32.8	378,014
✔		Joshua Polacheck	31.3	360,835

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,152,979
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for Arizona Corporation Commission (3 seats)

Rachel Walden, Rene Lopez, and incumbent Lea Marquez Peterson advanced from the Republican primary for Arizona Corporation Commission on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rachel Walden	36.8	512,104
✔		Rene Lopez	32.4	450,479
✔		Lea Marquez Peterson	30.9	429,820

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,392,403
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Christy Kelly (R)

Green primary election

Green primary for Arizona Corporation Commission (3 seats)

Mike Cease and Nina Luxenberg advanced from the Green primary for Arizona Corporation Commission on July 30, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Mike Cease (Write-in)	50.4	179
✔		Nina Luxenberg (Write-in)	49.6	176

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 355
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Hill in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jonathon Hill completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hill's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

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.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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.	”
—Jonathon Hill’s campaign website (2024)

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Jonathon Hill campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Arizona Corporation Commission	Lost general	$366,056	$366,728
Grand total			$366,056	$366,728
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

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Candidate

Arizona Corporation Commission

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