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Will Lawrence was bullish when I asked him about where the proliferation of data centers fits into his pitch to oust Republican Rep. Tom Barrett.
"I see it as one of the central issues eroding public trust in this district," Lawrence told me days after becoming the Democratic nominee in the mid-Michigan district around Lansing. "And for that reason, it is essential."
Lawrence is just one of the many candidates nationwide - Democrats and Republicans - running on their opposition to data center projects, and data centers have gone from an almost entirely anonymous topic to a political issue so potent that candidates are desperate to use them in their campaigns. Communities nationwide are seeking to restrict the growth of data centers, and the opposition cuts across party lines.
"Above all, it's about the question of control: Who decides?" Lawrence said of the issues of political power. "And people experience this as a very acute example of how our economy has been taken over by these billionaires who are now buying out the entire political process."
Lawrence's strategy here is compelling. He is coming off a notably bruising primary against former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, both of whom represented the more establishment wing of the Democratic Party. Now Lawrence, who co-founded the climate policy-focused Sunrise Movement and is a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America, must unite left-wing voters while also winning over skeptical Republicans in the district, which President Donald Trump narrowly carried in 2024.
Lawrence told us he joined the local data center opposition during the primary and clearly saw their political power. It's an issue he appears to hope will not only unify his party, but also bring in more right-leaning voters in his district.
That is where his new ad comes in. Lawrence isn't just talking about the issue with me: He is putting money behind the push, too.
His campaign will begin airing an ad titled "Michigan First" centered on a proposed data center project in Mason, Michigan. The proposed data center has faced fervent opposition from local groups. And Lawrence's ad, the first of his general election campaign, attempts to link Barrett to the project.
"Congressman Tom Barrett wants to turn this field into a data center," Lawrence says in the spot, with an image of the proposed land in Mason. "I'm Will Lawrence, and I'm running for Congress to stop these data centers and put mid-Michigan first."
The links between the Mason project and Barrett are tenuous, at best. Lawrence's ad cites Barrett's vote for the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act, a bill that did help data center interests, and an email from Lawrence's campaign cited money Barrett has taken from utilities and other votes the Republican had taken in Congress.
But Barrett told me that his position on the possible Mason data center is that it should be decided by locals in the area, not a member of Congress.
"My position is that this has to be decided by the locals. I don't live in Mason. I live in the county adjacent to that. And I've been very clear that we should not be overriding local governments from Washington, D.C.," he said. "And we shouldn't have either bureaucrats or officials from Washington directing or not directing data centers and local communities."
Barrett was fully aware of the power of data centers as a political issue and, like Lawrence, cited trust when asked why data centers have become so potent.
"We have a low-trust society right now. People don't trust large institutions," he said, citing politicians, the media and industry. "People have no trust in any of these institutions. So when they tell them this is going to benefit them, they rightfully have a concern about whether or not the information they're receiving is candid and truthful and everything else."
Stevie O'Hanlon, a spokesperson for Lawrence's campaign, said "talk is cheap" when pressed on Barrett's position on the Mason data center and stood by the spot.
But Lawrence's attempt to claim Barrett's support for this specific data center project speaks to the lengths to which candidates will go to attack their opponents on the issue.
And that's because the polling on data center opposition is stark.
Gallup found earlier this year that 7 in 10 Americans oppose data centers being built in their area. Similarly, a Reuters/Ipsos poll earlier this year found just 1 in 3 Americans approve of the pace at which data centers are being built, with a staggering 77 percent telling the pollsters that they are concerned data centers will raise their electricity costs.
My colleague Molly Hennessy-Fiske recently published a fantastic piece about how opposition to data centers has fired up conservative voters in rural Texas, not exactly a bastion for progressive politics.
Trump, however, has firmly positioned Republicans as the pro-data center party. "If I were governor, I would want data centers so badly," he told Punchbowl News last week, calling opposition to them a "mistake" and arguing that economically "data centers could be bigger than oil." While his administration has taken steps to try to protect consumers from absorbing the great electrical demands of data centers, Trump has been an unabashed proponent of the projects. But the polling shows this may be one issue where Trump's Republican base is not willing to follow him.
Barrett declined to take a position on what Trump has said about data centers - "I don't take positions on other people's positions," he said - but reiterated that where to site data centers is a local, not federal, issue.
"People shouldn't want Washington, D.C., deciding where to site data centers," he said. "The people in the communities have to decide that for themselves."
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Previously:
• Voters want fighters. But where is the limit?
• Is the midterm cake baked?
• Is the midterm cake baked?
• For the DNC, no money, more problems