Write-in candidate Ruedas urges Yuma to slow data center plans

Priscila Ruedas was asking Yuma voters to handwrite her name for City Council while telling them to slow the city’s data center push and put heat, water and utility bills ahead of speed. The City of Yuma lists her as a write-in candidate for the July 21 primary, when voters will choose among three at-large council seats.

Ruedas, a public health worker at the University of Arizona, grew up in Yuma as the child of farmworkers from Mexicali, Baja California. Her platform centers on the “everyday Yuman.” She wants more shade and cooling centers for extreme heat, help for residents struggling with utility bills, and a slower, more public review of big projects before city leaders move ahead. In 2024, she helped complete a statewide estimate showing 79% of Arizona’s farmworkers live in Yuma County, a figure that fits the county’s outsized role in agriculture and agribusiness. The University of Arizona attributed $4.4 billion to Arizona’s economy and $3.9 billion within Yuma County in 2022.

A write-in vote only counts if voters mark the write-in space and write the name of a qualified write-in candidate. Arizona law requires write-in candidates to file a nomination paper and financial disclosure statement to get on the official write-in list, and votes will not be tallied for candidates who did not file the required paperwork.

Arizona State University research from May 2026 showed air-cooled data centers in the Phoenix metro area could raise nearby downwind temperatures by as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit. In Yuma, residents protested outside a Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp. meeting in April. There were no current applications or permit requests before the city.