Water, housing costs top Arizona voters’ focus, statewide survey finds

Arizona’s likely voters share broad agreement on the issues they want leaders to tackle: affordability, water, immigration and education.

That is the finding of a new Arizona Voters Agenda study, a statewide survey released by the Center for the Future of Arizona.

The nonpartisan nonprofit conducts the survey every two years, working with pollster Paul Bentz of HighGround Consultants. Unlike typical campaign polling, this study does not measure which candidates are ahead. Instead, it asks what voters want leaders to prioritize and where majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents in every age group agree.

“We’re not telling a preferred position,” Bentz said during a presentation Tuesday about their findings. “We ask a lot of different types of positions to identify where views are the strongest.”

What the survey found

The overarching takeaway is that voters are feeling squeezed.

Ninety percent of respondents said it is difficult to cover basic monthly expenses and more than half named housing as the top source of financial strain.

Among voters under 50, at least half said rising costs make them consider leaving the state.

Water ranked as the top issue facing Arizona. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they are not confident the state’s water systems can support future growth.

“I’ve been saying this to candidates for a while: You can win on water,” Bentz said, urging reporters to press for specifics. “Don’t let candidates get away with, ‘Well, water is important,’ and then move on to something else they want to talk about. It’s such a pressing issue among the electorate that these are good questions to try to get answers from to help drive that conversation, because that’s what voters want to hear.”

On immigration, 90% said Arizona should prioritize both border security and a functioning border for trade and legal immigration. Eighty-six percent supported a “clearer and easier legal pathway for citizenship” for immigrants who meet established requirements.

Education drew the highest consensus, with 98% supporting strong reading, math and writing skills.

“I can’t get 90% of the electorate to agree what color the sky is,” Bentz said.

Elections were the exception: While 65% of voters expressed confidence in Arizona’s election security, only 45% of Republicans did.

“(Arizonans) share more common ground than political debate often reflects,” Sybil Francis, the center’s president and CEO, said. “Why has progress remained so limited despite this overwhelming agreement?”

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