For an affordable Tempe.
"I'm Bobby Nichols, and I'm a Democrat running for Tempe City Council. I grew up in Tempe and built my career as an attorney in public service.This campaign started with a grassroots group of Tempe residents frustrated with the skyrocketing cost of living here in our hometown and ready to do something about it.I'm not a politician, and I've never run for office before. But as a public interest lawyer who has written laws at the state and local level, I'm ready to act to bring down the cost of living in the city we call home.
My top priorities
HOUSING: Reducing the cost of housing to make Tempe affordable for everyoneCHILDCARE: Expanding the city's successful preschool program to provide free childcare to Tempe residentsCOST OF LIVING: Programs to bring down the cost of groceries, reduce the cost of transportation, and morePROTECTING OUR RIGHTS: Keeping Tempe residents safe from ICE, including by ending the city's current contract with Flock, a company that conducts invasive ICE surveillance
The current City Council: check the record
Check the record of those currently serving on the Tempe City Council. You'll see that they've voted to:-Support tax breaks for billionaires (November 2022 vote on the Coyotes stadium)-Restrict park access without public input (July 2025 ordinance vote)-Expand ICE surveillance networks (2025 Flock camera purchases)Tempe deserves leadership that will fight to make our city affordable, livable, and safe. If you agree, I'd be honored to have your vote for City Council.
Where I stand
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About Bobby
Bobby Nichols is a Democrat running for Tempe City Council.Raised in South Tempe, Bobby has written laws and ballot initiatives to establish affordable housing programs, defend tenants from unfair evictions, and protect public events and mutual aid organizations in Tempe.In 2021, Bobby was approached by a survivor of domestic violence who had opened a women's shelter and who wanted to change Arizona law to provide stronger protections to survivors of domestic violence and their children. After Bobby helped draft the legislation, they spent the next year lobbying legislators from both sides of the political aisle. The bill passed with support from legislators of both parties and was signed into law by Governor Ducey in 2022, helping to make a potentially life-changing difference for survivors of domestic violence around the state.Bobby has also:
marched on picket lines and in protests with flight attendants, baristas, Teamsters, hospitality staff, performers, cannabis workers, and many others
represented veterans, tenants, and cannabis conviction expungement clinics.
fought to enshrine abortion access in Arizona's constitution.
fought alongside union locals in the battle against Arizona's anti-labor "right-to-work" laws.
Professionally, Bobby is an attorney representing the state of Arizona in cases involving the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children and vulnerable adults.*As a democratic socialist, Bobby believes that city governments should make life easier for workers and local business owners by lowering costs and supporting community aid. Tempe residents deserve more disposable income, and Bobby plans to put that money in their pockets by making our city affordable for everyone.
As a city councilmember, Bobby will use every available tool to make Tempe accessible, accountable, and affordable!
*Bobby's opinions do NOT represent those of the Arizona Attorney General or the Arizona Attorney General's Office. Bobby is NOT running for city council in connection with any of his responsibilities or roles as an assistant attorney general for the state of Arizona.
Bobby's Platform
Affordability
High rents, stagnant wages, and steadily rising prices at the grocery store and gas station have created a cost-of-living crisis in Tempe. The price of rent in Tempe increased over 70% from 2010-2022, and 2025 is on track to have the second-most evictions filed in any year since 2000, just behind 2024.Tempe's housing expenses are 37% higher than the national average and the utility prices are 7% higher than the national average. Across the board, Tempe’s total cost of childcare, food, healthcare, housing, transportation, utilities, and other necessities is 13% higher than the national average.Minimum wage workers are forced to work multiple jobs and unreasonable hours, just to stay in their hometown. City shelters and cooling stations have shut down at dangerous rates, causing serious harm to newly unhoused families and workers. Tempe is arresting unhoused residents for the crime of existing on our streets, the city is cracking down on mutual aid organizers, and nobody is taking action to hold corporate developers accountable for gentrifying our city.Thankfully, Tempe has the tools to address this cost-of-living crisis.To solve Tempe's housing shortage, we can expand the supply of affordable housing by establishing residential missing-middle zoning overlays throughout the entire city, as well as by building public housing on public land.To keep Tempe tenants in their homes, we can establish rent controls on city owned, financed, subsidized or insured properties and expand housing vouchers and rental subsidy programs.To address Tempe's crisis of homelessness, we can buy and build shelters and non-congregate care facilities, and obtain additional public land to create public housing programs that incorporate the historically successful “housing-first” model of homelessness prevention.To address immediate pains felt by Tempe residents experiencing homelessness, we can redirect a tiny fraction (less than 1%) of our $1.7 billion city budget to reopen city shelters and cooling stations. Tempe can also allow generous residents to provide mutual aid without fear of criminal charges by redirecting funds that are currently spent on criminalization.To eliminate food deserts and provide high-quality meals for Tempe families at below market-rate prices, we can invest in city-owned grocery stores modeled after the historically successful projects in Kansas and Wisconsin.These public projects will do more than reduce expenses for Tempe residents. They will create stable, good-paying, public municipal jobs in construction, finance, retail, and public service. These jobs will stabilize life within Tempe and incentivize our young families to lay down life-long roots.
Labor and Unions
I am a firm believer that life is better in a union, and I will do everything in my power to uplift workers and protect unions in Tempe. We must empower union growth by protecting our constitutional right to collectively organize and bargain for higher wages while securing better benefits and safer working conditions for ourselves and future generations of Tempe workers.If elected, I will introduce legislation and make use of my political platform to achieve pro-worker and pro-union political victories through neutrality agreements, prevailing wage laws, 1099 misclassification preventions, heat protections, and the punishment of wage theft and tip stealing.
Environmental Justice
We deserve to live in a safe and healthy world.If elected, I will introduce legislation to expand public transit options and add solar panels to publicly owned buildings to decrease carbon emissions and provide Tempe residents with safe sources of renewable energy. I will also introduce legislation that places strict limits on the use of water for the development of corporate luxury developments and plants not suited to Tempe's desert climate.
Immigrant Rights
Immigrant communities are essential to our city. America and Arizona were built by immigrants, and I am a firm defender of immigrant rights.In light of what is happening here in Arizona and around the country, we need much stronger action than we have seen from the City of Tempe to date.I understand that Tempe can't obstruct ICE from enforcing immigration laws, but we can't stand by while this abuse unfolds. We need proactive policies to ensure that peaceful protestors are not abused and residents without criminal records are not violently and unlawfully detained. Where abuses occur, we need to ensure that the abusers are held accountable, regardless of the letters on their vest.To protect our residents, I call on Tempe to cancel its contract with Flock, which allows its camera network to be used by ICE all over the country.
To defend our public spaces, I call on Tempe to prohibit ICE staging on city-owned land.To ensure accountability, I call on Tempe to prohibit the use of identity-concealing masks and methods by any law enforcement agencies operating within city limits.And to deter abuses by federal agents, I call on Tempe to actively prosecute any officers who attack protestors without provocation and/or violate private properties by invading homes and businesses without an invitation or a proper judicial warrants.Until ICE is abolished, this is the bare minimum for me.
Education
I believe that every child is entitled to a free, quality, public education. Rich or poor, Black or white, gifted or disabled -- all our children deserve the chance to grow, to learn, and to reach their potential.Right now, young families are unable to build lives in Tempe because of our cost-of-living crisis. That means class sizes are dwindling, resulting in reduced state funding for public education in Tempe. At the same time, ESA vouchers are demolishing public education funding in Arizona. The money that goes into charter schools through ESA vouchers could be used to provide better educational opportunities to everyone if they supported public schools.If elected, I would introduce legislation to enhance our public schools by increasing educator compensation, covering classroom expenses that teachers are forced to pay, providing social services to students, and updating our public school campuses.To empower educational experiences and give our students and families the opportunity to learn on their own time, I would introduce legislation that automatically enrolls Tempe residents in our public library system by issuing virtual library cards, giving Tempe residents immediate access to our library's digital and physical resources. I will also seek to increase funding for our library through grants, bonds, and the redirection of inefficient city expenditures.
Reproductive Justice
Reproductive justice is essential to any functioning society that values autonomy and feminism. Women's bodies are subjected to more oppressive measures in America than any other “developed” nation.If elected, I will introduce legislation that makes Tempe a reproductive health sanctuary city by prohibiting law enforcement from collaborating with regressive and oppressive state actors attempting to track, catch, arrest, and imprison women for refusing to comply with local forced-birth laws.
Childcare
Childcare is one of the most expensive costs that young families face in America. Covering that cost will improve our economy by putting money back in the pockets of parents.Tempe's preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds has been a tremendous success. If elected, I will introduce legislation to expand the program to include younger children, providing free childcare to more families and making this city more affordable for everyone.
Protecting LGBTQIA+ Communities
Queer, trans and nonbinary people in America are facing a hostile new reality under Donald Trump's administration, and several of Tempe's largest and oldest social institutions have capitulated to Trump’s assault on trans rights. At the same time, our cost of living crisis hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness.If elected, I will support our LGBTQIA+ communities by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care, making Tempe an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and hiring new city staffers dedicated to uplifting our LGBTQIA+ residents.In coordination with local members of Tempe's LGBTQIA+ community, I have prepared a Transgender Bill of Rights for our city, and I will be fighting to pass it immediately upon election.
Racial Justice
Tempe is a diverse city, and our communities of color make this city more vibrant and resilient.As a city council member, I will use my office to support Tempe’s Hispanic and Latino communities, Black communities, Asian communities, and other communities of color by fighting for policies that address the inequalities created by historically racist laws.To counter the impact of redlining, I will support missing middle residential overlays and subsidies for accessory dwelling units to make our neighborhoods more accessible and more diverse.To address the racist impact of surveillance culture and over-policing, I will fight to prioritize community over criminalization and introduce legislation that will create an office of oversight, accountability, and transparency that will be empowered to investigate and affirmatively address instances of misconduct by Tempe employees.
Accessibility
Tempe is not as accessible or empowering for individuals with disabilities as it could or should be.If elected, I will introduce legislation to expand the city’s social and medical services for individuals with disabilities, fight for the expansion of no-cost and low-cost public transit to create transportation options for individuals who cannot drive, and update Tempe’s public spaces, public buildings, and public infrastructure so that it is genuinely accessible to everyone. I will also introduce legislation to invest in disaster preparedness and, in emergency situations, encourage responsible masking and other airborne illness mitigation methods in indoor public buildings.
Addressing Domestic Violence
If elected, I will introduce legislation creating a city sanctuary shelter for survivors of domestic abuse and their minor children who need to flee abusive partners or captors. I will introduce legislation to deploy social emergency response teams consisting of healthcare professionals and skilled social workers across the city to provide needed empathy and support to women who call out for help.
Community Engagement
Tempe residents have lost their voice in city hall. Right now, the City Council votes 7-0 on almost everything, making all their decisions behind closed doors. As a result, city leaders are positioned against an increasingly frustrated voter base, and the use of secret meetings to make important decisions has caused community groups to feel isolated from their elected representatives.I will not publicly betray my principles over private pressures.To ensure community engagement on all significant issues in Tempe, I will introduce legislation to close the staff-prepared legislation loophole that allows the city council to avoid community engagement on tough topics.
Making public transit more accessible is one of my top priorities. By expanding Tempe’s Orbit bus neighborhood circulator routes and stretching the Tempe Streetcar rail lines into south Tempe (or at least to the Tempe library), we can provide low and no cost public transit options to workers while protecting our environment and keeping our air and water clean.
I stand with the oppressed peoples of the world in their struggle for liberation. I condemn the apartheid and genocide being perpetuated against the Palestinian people by the state of Israel, and against the Sudanese people by the RSF and the UAE. I will be using my platform and writing resolutions to express solidarity with the oppressed people of the world and place economic pressure on the military industrial complex that fuels oppressive regimes.
Tempe is one of the most bikeable cities in Arizona, and our local cycling groups offer a fun way to experience the city.Tempe residents should be empowered to ride their bikes to school or work without fear of physical harm. So I support the installation of protected and buffered bike lanes to defend cyclists from car traffic.Bike friendly infrastructure can also benefit our local businesses. Studies have revealed that people who shop by bike spend more time and money at local businesses than those who shop by car, even while spending less per trip. Researchers have even shown that local bike infrastructure has positive, statistically significant impacts on residential property values.
Covering the Costs
These are not small ideas, and they will require real investments from the city of Tempe. We can fund these necessary programs through a combination of good governance, efficiency, real property vacancy fees, and common-sense city tax increases on short term rentals, transient lodgings, commercial leases, and other large-scale business activities.If elected, I will always fight for responsible budgets, progressive tax structures, and reasonable spending priorities in Tempe.Tempe does not need to waste taxpayer money on criminalizing the symptoms of poverty and despair, surveiling every person who drives on our city streets, or militarizing our law enforcement.By increasing Tempe's transaction-privilege taxes (aka "city taxes") on corporate development and construction contracting by 2%, we could add $10,000,000 to the city's budget overnight. By increasing city taxes on hotels, motels, and short term residential rentals like Airbnb's by 2%, we could add another $20,000,000. By increasing city transaction-privilege taxes on the leasing of commercial properties by 2%, we could add another $5,000,000. By increasing city taxes on businesses that rent vehicles and transport goods or passengers by 2%, we could add another $1,500,000.These common sense 2% city tax rate-increases on commercial activities and developments will cover lost city revenues from residential rental taxes and provide financial for public services, social housing, and so much more.While fighting for city funding to ensure that our shelters and supportive services are always properly funded, I will continue to use my voice and platform to push for the repeal of overreaching state preemptions that restrict city taxes on billionaires and big business.Arizona must empower cities to tax the transfer of real property worth more than $1,000,000. This would increase our city budgets by tens of millions of dollars, and that money could (and should) be legally earmarked for shelters, services, and permanent supportive housing.
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Important Dates
Primary Election - Tuesday, March 10, 2026
General Election - Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Media & Endorsements
Who's standing with Bobby?
Senator Lauren Kuby, AZ Legislative District 8
"Bobby is a proven leader and will be a changemaker on the City Council, bringing robust discussion on how we grow and how the city engages with residents. He is not beholden to developers or special interests, and he will be a people’s councilmember."
Representative Brian Garcia, AZ Legislative District 8
"Bobby Nichols is my top choice for Tempe City Council because he will fight for our working families, support our least fortunate neighbors, and develop public programs that work for everyone. His experience supporting tenants, veterans, small businesses, children, and vulnerable adults gives him the insight and experience necessary to address Tempe's cost of living crisis."
Phoenix City Council Member Anna Hernandez
"Arizona's working-class communities need leaders who will fight for their interests and prove that a better future is possible by passing progressive policies, especially in times like these. Bobby is exactly the type of dedicated public servant that our cities and towns need to meet this challenging moment, and I am proud to endorse his campaign for Tempe city council."
Senator Analise Ortiz, AZ Legislative District 24
"I am proud to endorse Bobby Nichols for Tempe City Council.Bobby shares my values of fighting for working families and prioritizing people over profit. He has a trusted record of expanding affordable housing, defending tenants from unfair evictions, and supporting workers’ rights. I’m confident he will deliver for the working people of Tempe as a council member."
Kevin Walsh, Kyrene School District Governing Board President
"Bobby is a champion for working families, dedicated to implementing smart housing policies and lowering the cost of living in our city. His commitment to affordability and inclusive community building ensures that our neighborhoods remain welcoming and accessible to everyone who calls Tempe home. I am proud to endorse Bobby for Tempe city council, and I encourage everyone to vote for him!"
Phoenix Metro DSA
"Corrupt and pro-corporate politics have created a cost-of-living crisis in Tempe. Bobby is a public policy expert and a former chapter leader running to make Tempe affordable for everyone. Our members proudly support Bobby's campaign for Tempe city council."
Democratic Socialists of America
"We are excited to announce that DSA is endorsing Bobby Nichols for Tempe City Council!Bobby is a public interest lawyer running to make Tempe affordable for everyone, building public housing and making it easier to form a union."
Young Democrats of Arizona
"The Young Democrats of Arizona are proud to endorse Bobby Nichols for Tempe City Council because Bobby is exactly the kind of leader Tempe needs; bold, compassionate, and unafraid to fight for working families. Bobby has spent years standing shoulder to shoulder with tenants, workers, and young organizers to make Tempe a more equitable and livable city. He understands the struggles everyday people face and has the experience to turn progressive values into real policy. We know that with Bobby on the City Council, Tempe will have a leader who listens, acts with integrity, and never stops fighting for a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive."
ASU Chapter of UCW-AZ
"The ASU Chapter of UCW-AZ is thrilled to endorse Bobby Nichols for Tempe City Council. Bobby has a proven record of standing in solidarity with workers across industries in Arizona not just in his words but in his actions. He has stood on picket lines and fought against Arizona’s “right-to-work” laws. Mr. Nichols is a fierce ally to queer folks and people of color and has shown that he values the experiences of all sectors of the working class. Recently, Bobby was one of the main organizers behind the movement that forced Tempe City Council to rescind the 30-person restriction in public parks ordinance (O2025.25). He has organized actions to speak out against evictions by corporate development and supports rent control. When elected, Bobby plans to introduce legislation that would provide free municipal childcare and city-run grocery stores, among other initiatives. Join us in voting for Bobby Nichols for Tempe City Council on March 10th, 2026."
Maricopa County Young Democrats
"The Maricopa County Young Democrats are proud to endorse Bobby Nichols, a leader who brings a vital youthful perspective and the professional experience needed to deliver results for our generation. Bobby’s background in public interest law and his commitment to bold progressive policies make him the champion we need to fight for workers' rights and tackle Tempe’s cost-of-living crisis."
Unity Rising USA
"Unity Rising is proud to endorse Bobby for Tempe City Council.Tempe’s working families deserve leadership that understands the real economic pressures facing our community; rising rent, stagnant wages, and the cost of simply getting by. Bobby has consistently shown a commitment to standing with workers, for everyone, not just those at the top.We know Bobby will be a strong voice for working people on the Tempe City Council and will prioritize economic justice, affordability, and opportunity for all."
Lead Locally
"As a fast growing city in Arizona, Tempe needs leaders who can fight for stronger investments in public transit, a workable plan to move towards clean energy, and efforts to mitigate shifting water resources. That's why we are backing Bobby Nichols.Bobby is a lawyer and well-known state advocate who has written laws and ballot initiatives to establish affordable housing programs, expand emergency protections to survivors of domestic abuse, and defend tenants from unfair evictions. Bobby has stood alongside climate activists to demand a Green New Deal for Arizona. He’s running to expand the city’s solar infrastructure, expand public transit, and oppose the development of new data centers."
Articles
Arizona's Family - Politics Unplugged (Full Episode) November 16, 2025
Fox 10 Phoenix - Who's watching? Some residents alarmed by constant Flock Safety data collection
Tempe faces call to remove AI cameras that track where you’ve been
Blog for Arizona - Bobby Nichols is Running for City Council to Make Tempe Affordable for Everyone
Phoenix New Times - After hours of backlash, Tempe OKs controversial new parks ordinance
Phoenix New Times - Tempe City Council to reconsider divisive ordinance it passed in July
Phoenix New Times - Major Tempe City Council vote postponed due to ‘security concerns’
Videos
Financial Disclosures
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