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It remains difficult to leave a deeply unpopular Congress.
Democratic voters selected Attorney General Phil Weiser over Sen. Michael Bennet in Colorado's Democratic primary for governor on Tuesday. Bennet's loss in a race that largely focused on who would more forcefully confront President Donald Trump is also a repudiation of the Democratic establishment in a Congress with a near record-low approval rating.
State Rep. Manny Rutinel will also represent Democrats in the state's key congressional race north of Denver, offering voters a more progressive option by defeating former state representative Shannon Bird. Rutinel will face Rep. Gabe Evans in November.
Plus, lawyer and democratic socialist Melat Kiros, 29, ousted Rep. Diana DeGette, a liberal, 30-year incumbent from Denver in a Colorado House primary.
The divide on data centers
There is an interesting divide over data centers playing out on the right.
On one side is political opinion. With a string of polls showing the vast majority of Americans - and even a majority of Republicans - oppose data center construction in their communities, some conservative candidates have positioned themselves as a bulwark to the data centers that power artificial intelligence.
Rep. Byron Donalds, the Trump-backed candidate in Florida's Republican gubernatorial primary, has been running ads in the race pledging to "protect Florida families and communities from data centers that jack up utility rates and make everything else more expensive."
"You don't want to pay for AI data centers, and when I'm governor, you won't," Donalds says in the spot.
Donalds is not alone. A handful of Republicans from Texas to Pennsylvania to Michigan have warned about data center construction - with some calling for a temporary pause on building new ones.
On the other side? Support for the AI industry and concerns about losing the AI war to China. This view, along with the substantial money the tech industry has shown it is willing to spend on elections, has led some Republican candidates to stake out firmly pro-AI positions, despite the public polling.
This tension among Republicans underscores the complicated politics and unique coalitions around artificial intelligence - something our colleagues Liz Goodwin and Riley Beggin have documented - and will be a story to watch on the right ahead of November's midterms.
Take Jay Feely, the former National Football League kicker who is backed by Trump in Arizona's competitive congressional race around Phoenix. Feely has been an outspoken proponent of data centers and the AI industry, despite the state being a hotbed of opposition to the project.
In March, he questioned what data center opponents in another state actually gained from blocking a data center project, saying they are "getting rid of billions of dollars in tax revenue and thousands of jobs" and noting the project will likely just go elsewhere.
"We are one of the fastest areas growing those data storage centers, which are going to be so key to the revolution that's coming," Feely said in another interview, acknowledging that these projects need to do a better job communicating with the public. "I want us to be at the forefront of that."
Feely is getting challenged on the topic in his primary. In a recent debate, Joseph Chaplik, a former Arizona state representative running for the seat, argued the "people in this district do not want data centers right next to their homes" and suggested Feely was too pro-AI.
"We have to understand the fight we're in here nationally with China," Feely said about his support for data centers, even suggesting that the opposition to data centers is part of a Chinese influence campaign.
Feely's support for the AI industry has led them to support him, too. Late last month, Leading the Future, the outside political group backed by prominent investors in OpenAI and other technology leaders, announced it would support Feely in his primary this month. That support, the group says, comes with an initial plan to spend $600,000 supporting the former football player, a figure only slightly less than the $645,000 Feely's campaign has spent on ad time so far.
Zac Moffatt, co-strategist for the pro-AI outside group, said Feely was a "strong advocate for growing the economy, expanding opportunity for his district's residents, and securing America's technological leadership." He noted Feely's support for "a national AI framework."
We asked Feely to detail his position on data centers and AI regulation. Brady Smith, a strategist for Feely, said the Republican was a "strong supporter of making Arizona the epicenter of America's technological infrastructure, bringing jobs, growth, and investment," but wants to see that development done in a way that doesn't raise energy costs, protects water usage and "respects the communities where infrastructure is built."
The question for Feely and others is whether support for data centers will come with a price to pay from voters.
The polling on data centers - especially those built in communities - has been pretty clear. A Gallup survey in May found "seven in 10 Americans oppose constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area, including nearly half, 48%, who are strongly opposed." This is an issue that bridges the partisan divide, too. While Democrats are more opposed - 75 percent said they were either somewhat or strongly opposed - a notable 63 percent of Republicans said the same thing.
"Americans everywhere are pushing back against data centers because they are the physical manifestation of their dislike of big tech companies," said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project. "It doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on, resisting tech CEOs' influence and holding big tech accountable is actually uniting a lot of Americans."
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