The Anti-Data-Center Movement Is Reshaping Michigan Politics

Will Lawrence, a co-founder of the grassroots climate activism group Sunrise Movement, is running for Congress in Michigan's 7th district, a competitive swing district. He is among a growing number of candidates nationwide calling for a moratorium on data center development.

Lawrence has been endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, who praised him as a candidate who will “demand real accountability for big tech and AI companies.” Lawrence says the backlash against data centers is helping him understand rural resistance to another kind of large-scale industrial project: utility-scale renewable energy.

Political Impact

Lawrence's campaign sees data centers as a potent issue to rally voters in the Democratic primary, scheduled for August. Internal polling by Data for Progress, shared with WIRED, indicates that more than 40% of likely Democratic primary voters in the district would be “much more likely” to vote for a candidate opposing data centers. Among voters under 45, nearly 80% said they would be more likely to support such a candidate.

Lawrence told WIRED that data centers were not the issue he expected to talk about on the campaign. Voters began approaching him after he announced his candidacy last summer, seeking advice on how to channel local anti-data-center energy into productive action. “People feel like they’re being utterly disrespected by the companies and the local officials who are welcoming them into town,” he said.

Local Resistance and Controversy

At least 11 data centers are planned across Michigan, according to the Cleanview database. Significant local pushback in two townships within the 7th district has stalled at least two projects over the past year. However, developers have found ways around opposition elsewhere. In the 6th district, after a township voted against an Oracle data center, the company sued, and the town allowed development rather than face a costly legal battle.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared at the opening of that Oracle data center earlier this month, photographed smiling next to OpenAI's Sam Altman and praising the $16 billion investment. Christy McGillivray, executive director of the Michigan-based democracy reform group Voters Not Politicians, called Whitmer's appearance a major misstep that could hurt the Democratic Party.

Connection to Renewable Energy

On the campaign trail, Lawrence met with data center protesters who also oppose solar and wind projects on farmland. Michigan leads the nation in local restrictions on renewable energy: more than 60 local governments passed ordinances, moratoriums, or other restrictions on wind and solar development between 2011 and 2024, stalling or blocking at least 28 projects.

In 2023, Whitmer signed a law allowing renewable energy developers to bypass local ordinances more easily, prompting backlash and a lawsuit from dozens of townships, many in the 7th district. Lawrence says he supports renewable energy, especially community-owned models, but the data center issue has helped him understand why Michiganders resist big renewable projects. “The pattern that I see is people don't feel that they have control over the future of their own community,” he said.

Cooper Teboe, a Democratic strategist, argues that tech companies need to change how they approach communities. “Ninety-nine percent of the tech executives think that of course people will love these things,” he said. “They cannot conceive of a world where the first thought someone has upon seeing a data center … is ‘What the fuck are you doing in my backyard?’”