Anti-data center candidates swept Michigan’s August primaries

Candidates who opposed data center development won across Michigan's Aug. 4 primary elections, with at least 14 candidates who ran on anti-data center platforms defeating pro-data center opponents in both parties. The issue became a major factor in races ranging from city councils to the U.S. Senate.

In Allen Park, pastor Joanna Whaley organized opposition to a proposed 26-megawatt data center, helping pressure city leaders to vote down the project. Whaley said public pressure was responsible for stopping the facility, and her role in that fight helped her win a primary for a state House seat over a member of a political family that had represented the region for decades.

In the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, Abdul El-Sayed backed state and local moratoria on data centers, while U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, who received backing from technology and utility interests, did not. Donavan McKinney, who supports a federal moratorium and did not take corporate donations, won his primary in Michigan's 13th Congressional District. Near Lansing, Sunrise Movement co-founder William Lawrence, who called for a national moratorium on data centers, defeated two Democratic opponents in a three-way U.S. House race.

Republican state Rep. Steve Carra, a vocal data center critic, held off nearly $300,000 in spending by groups tied to Consumers Energy aimed at unseating him. In rural Augusta Township, voters rejected a rezoning proposal that would have allowed a data center to be built.

Read the full story at insideclimatenews.org.