The streets of downtown Mason, Michigan, are giving way to vast expanses of open fields, where developers want to build a billion-dollar data center just a few miles from the farm that Bryan Droscha’s family has owned for more than a century.
He worries the construction could pollute the groundwater and air that his cattle and maple syrup operations depend on, as well as the deer he hunts. That’s why, he said, he supports a national pause on new data centers proposed by William Lawrence, the Democratic candidate in his purple Congressional district.
But Mr. Droscha, 64, said he was not sure Mr. Lawrence could deliver on his promises, especially without a Democrat in the White House and with unclear control over Congress. So, he said, he would likely vote again for the familiar candidate, Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican seeking re-election.
“You can say it 100 times a day, every day, but is it going to happen? » said Mr. Droscha last week, before feeding hay to his cows. “It’s the distrust I have.”
Anger over the data center boom rippling through rural America permeates lawns, council meetings and daily conversations in Mason, a Michigan county seat of about 8,300 where residents view the potential 400-acre project as a serious threat to their groundwater, property values, environment and quality of life.
Their joint response upended local politics, leading to emotionally charged public meetings in which residents claimed city officials were not speaking openly about the developers’ plans. At a perfect time, it also collided with a marquee federal contest, the costliest House race of the midterm elections and one that could shift the balance of power in Congress.
Although Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Barrett both oppose building a data center near Mason, their contrasting solutions have managed to divide the community in the rare moments when neighbors unite across partisan lines.
“This is absolutely the biggest issue for voters in Mason City,” said Meg Short, 41, who works in real estate, adding that she was not ready to return the ballot she had marked for Mr. Lawrence and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Senate. “It’s been difficult to choose at the state level who I want to represent.”
Mr. Lawrence, a progressive who has positioned himself as an anti-corporate outsider, has made controlling tech giants through federal intervention a central pillar of his campaign. On the Republican side, Mr. Barrett has called for repealing tax incentives for real estate developers but opposes federal action, saying zoning decisions should remain entirely in the hands of local officials.
Some voters around Mason said Mr. Lawrence’s engagement with the anti-data center community appealed to them. Zachary Bartels, 48, a conservative who lives about a third of a mile from the proposed data center site, remembers Mr. Lawrence receiving thunderous applause after a speech against data centers at a city council meeting last month.
“He just won — not necessarily our vote — but the right to be in the room by being in the room so many times,” said Mr. Bartels, a pastor who has also spoken at recent town meetings.
Mr. Bartels said he was undecided about who would receive his vote, even though he helped elect Mr. Barrett and President Trump. But, Mr. Bartels added, neither House candidate has offered a sufficiently detailed plan for how they could help Mason from Congress.
“I kind of go both ways,” he said.
Like Mr. Bartels, other voters said they were torn. They said they did not trust local officials to stop the project. But they were also hesitant to adopt federal regulations or to believe that the progressive candidate, Mr. Lawrence, could make meaningful changes.
They saw how quickly the nationwide data center boom swept through Michigan: favorable tax laws, a cool climate, large acreage, and easy access to water for cooling made it one of the nation’s favorite destinations for artificial intelligence.
Huge projects have progressed elsewhere in the state, including a $16 billion campus backed by OpenAI and Oracle in Saline Township. Mason area residents used the project’s approval to prove that local governments lacked the legal and financial power to resist big corporations and that state laws favored tech giants over small towns.
The issue erupted in Mason late last year, when city officials considered a new zoning ordinance regarding a potential data center. It passed this year, with authorities saying they had installed guardrails, but residents said they were far too weak. The ordinance was later rescinded.
Residents also forced a recall vote for a longtime city councilor on the Nov. 3 ballot and began trying to unseat the mayor.
The discussion intensified in August when local landowners working with an Ohio-based developer asked the state to annex 400 acres of farmland to the city of Mason to secure municipal water and sewer for a data center, which many residents learned through public records requests.
City officials said the data center would generate tax revenue. The Trump administration has also said that developing AI infrastructure is necessary to gain technological supremacy over China.
A representative for the developer, Comino Development, and the owners’ attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
At a City Council meeting last week, about 200 residents wearing signs, shirts and hats declaring “No Data Centers in Mason” filled City Hall, many of them there to offer public comments before the council voted on a proposed zoning rewrite plan. (They ultimately rejected it.)
One resident, Doug DeLind, a sculptor who lives next to the proposed site, took the bold step of suggesting candidates he could support. Partisan divisions emerged.
When Mr. DeLind said he supported Dr. El-Sayed, who called for a ban on superintelligent AI and the creation of a ministerial agency to regulate this rapidly developing industry, someone in the crowd said, “Terrorism.”
“Not terrorism,” Mr. DeLind replied, joining residents outraged by the baseless accusations leveled against Dr. El-Sayed throughout his campaign that he had ties to terrorist groups.
When Mr. DeLind mentioned Mr. Lawrence’s name, someone said, “Socialist!”
“He is,” Mr. DeLind retorted, drawing applause. “I’m glad we got this out there.”
Mr. Lawrence let his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America expire, but still identifies as a progressive. Even with his left-leaning platform, he said the issue gave him an opportunity to speak to conservative voters.
“There are certainly people who are voting with me on this issue, including people who have been Republican voters in the past and who see me on their side,” Mr. Lawrence said in an interview.
For his part, Mr. Barrett said he did not believe he would lose voters on the data center issue, adding that Mr. Lawrence’s proposal for a federal moratorium was unrealistic.
“Are you going to get enough votes in the United States Senate to do this?” » he said in an interview. “And then, is President Trump going to sign it, knowing that he has officially opposed these restrictions?”
Mayor Russell Whipple of Mason, a nonpartisan official, disputed residents’ accusations that he withheld information about his conversations with data center developers. He said residents’ fears about the dangers of such a center were overblown, adding that the city would set standards for noise, as well as air and water quality.
But he said he expected the midterm elections to be “a little bluer” in his city because of Mr. Lawrence’s visibility.
“An old reporter told me 30 years ago, ‘In small-town elections, the most signs win,'” Mr. Whipple said. “There are more signs of Will Lawrence than Tom Barrett.”
Gn headline
