The anti-data center movement is reshaping Michigan politics

Will Lawrence is Co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots climate activism group. Now he’s running for Congress in a swing district in Michigan, one of a handful of candidates across the country calling for Stop developing data centers.

Senator Bernie Sanders has He supported himHe described Lawrence as a candidate who “will demand real accountability for Big Tech and artificial intelligence.” and Backlash on data centersLawrence says the project helps him understand rural resistance to another type of large-scale industrial projects in the state: utility-scale renewable energy.

Lawrence’s campaign sees data centers as a strong topic to rally voters to his side in the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 7th District, which will be held in August. Data for Progress’s internal poll of likely Democratic primary voters in the district shared with WIRED shows that more than 40 percent of respondents were “more likely” to vote for a candidate who opposes data centers. The message resonated most with respondents under 45: Nearly 80 percent of younger voters said they would be as likely or more likely to support an anti-DC candidate. (The 7th District includes the college town of Ingham.)

“Data centers were definitely not the issue I expected to talk about in the campaign,” Lawrence tells WIRED. He says voters naturally began approaching him at town halls and other meetings after he announced his candidacy last summer, seeking his advice as a longtime organizer on how to channel the anti-data center energy among their neighbors into something productive.

“People feel like they are not fully respected by the businesses and local officials who welcome them to the city,” he says.

The Progress Data poll put Lawrence ahead of his rivals in the primary. Another poll Commissioned Lawrence’s victory in the primary, written by one of his opponents, was released in April, although it also shows that the vast majority of voters remain undecided. Lawrence also still ranks third in fundraising.

There are at least 11 data centers Planned throughout MichiganAccording to the Cleanview energy database. Significant local resistance in two towns in District 7 has stalled at least two planned projects over the past year. But data center developers have found ways to overcome local opposition elsewhere in the state. After a town in the 6th District voted against construction of an Oracle data center earlier this year, the company sued and the town allowed development to begin rather than engage in a costly court battle.

Earlier this month, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared at the opening of Oracle’s data center, where she was photographed smiling alongside OpenAI’s Sam Altman and praising the $16 billion investment.

“Any candidate worth his weight knows these data centers are toxic,” says Cooper Thibault, a Democratic strategist based in California. Candidates who don’t realize this are “not candidates who are going to win,” Thibault says.

Christy McGillivray, executive director of Voters Not Politicians, a Michigan-based Democratic reform organization, says Whitmer’s appearance at the inauguration was a huge mistake on the part of the governor, who has been pitched as a 2028 presidential contender.

“It literally blew my mind,” she says. “I was like, ‘Are you trying to hurt the entire Democratic Party?’

During the campaign, Lawrence says he met protesters at the data center who strongly disagreed with him politically. These include people who oppose the construction of data centers and who also oppose solar and wind projects being built on farmland.

Michigan is a hotbed of resistance to renewable energy projects. A 2025 review It ranks as the state with the highest number of local restrictions: More than 60 local governments in Michigan passed ordinances, moratoriums or other restrictions on wind and solar development between 2011 and 2024. The report found that local opposition halted or blocked at least 28 projects across the state.