A co-founder of the Sunrise Movement is betting that data center opposition will propel his progressive campaign over more-centrist Democrats, despite his underdog status.
William Lawrence, a community organizer who help launch the youth-led climate change action group nearly a decade ago, is in a three-way Democratic primary in Michigan’s Lansing-area 7th District, where President Donald Trump won in the 2024 election by the slimmest of margins. The winner will face incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in what is likely to be one of the nation’s closest general election races this November.
Lawrence — who has support from Sunrise, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed — has tried to put significant attention on data centers. He’s calling for a nationwide moratorium on data center construction and has focused on the issue in his first video advertisement of the campaign.
The race serves as a key indicator of whether voters want Democrats leaning more left on data centers and climate change. Lawrence hasn’t raised as much money as either of his primary opponents — Bridget Brink, former ambassador to Ukraine, and Matt Maasdam, a former Navy SEAL — who have also gotten high-profile endorsements.
Michigan is home to a number of high-profile data center construction projects, such as ones in Saline Township and Dowagiac that have, at times, split communities and state leaders over their potential impacts to the electric grid, water supplies and surrounding area.
“It wasn’t something I expected to be talking about last August when I got into the race because it really wasn’t on folks’ radar here in Michigan. But there were then four data centers proposed in my district alone after I declared my candidacy,” Lawrence said in an interview.
Riding a wave
Lawrence said he went to local planning meetings to listen to data center companies pitch their projects and hear what Michiganders were saying about them.
“It was clear to me that this is an abuse of power that is taking advantage of communities without the resources to fully fight back on their own,” he said.
Lawrence’s campaign launched an ad featuring him at a farm, saying, “Tech billionaires want to turn this field into a massive data center that’ll jack up our energy bills and ruin our home values.”
“I’m running for U.S. Congress because I’ve never been afraid to stand up to corporate power,” Lawrence said in the ad.
Michigan is a hot market for data centers, owing to its location near the middle of the country and favorable tax treatments for the facilities. Out of the United States’ 4,668 data centers in operation or development, 79 are in Michigan, ranking it No. 18 among states, according to Data Center Map. A POLITICO analysis of Data Center Map’s data found that 12 projects are in Michigan’s 7th District, half in operation and half in development.
El-Sayed, who is running as a progressive in Michigan’s Democratic primary for the Senate, is making data centers a high priority in his race as well, although he has not endorsed a nationwide moratorium. Many top Democrats have endorsed the more-moderate Rep. Haley Stevens. The Democratic primary winner will likely take on former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers.
Pitching climate
Lawrence is also carrying on his advocacy for the Green New Deal, the rapid decarbonization proposal that Sunrise is best known for, as part of his campaign for the House.
“The foundation of green industrial policy remains a strong prescription to continue the work of cutting climate pollution while creating good jobs building things here in this country,” he said.
While the Democrats’ 2022 Inflation Reduction Act — the largest federal investment in renewable energy ever — had “a lot” of what the Green New Deal hoped to accomplish, Lawrence wants to focus on securing other pieces, like expanding the child tax credit, investing billions of dollars in green housing and making union organizing easier. The Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill last year rolled back major parts of the IRA.
Lawrence’s Green New Deal push puts him in line with a series of insurgent Democrats who have won primaries this year in safe Democratic congressional seats and are poised to advance to Congress next year, breathing new life into the climate proposal for the artificial intelligence and data center age.
“He has a shot at proving that someone who is backed by Bernie Sanders and the Working Families Party, who is the Sunrise Movement co-founder, who is a proud progressive and very uncompromising in those ideals…can win in a seat that Trump won,” said Denae Ávila-Dickson, spokesperson for Sunrise.
Lawrence may be tapping into real concerns that voters aren’t hearing from other politicians, said Nazita Lajevardi, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, but he’s risking alienating certain voters.
“It’s kind of a gamble, because some of the issues he’s talking about might appeal to the left wing of the Democratic Party,” she said, pointing to his support for the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and other progressive concepts.
Uphill battle
Lawrence has raised $1.1 million, far behind his primary opponents. Brink has raised $3 million and Maasdam $2.1 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.
No independent polling on the race has been released. One poll taken in June by GQR, commissioned by Brink’s campaign, had her at 30 percent to Lawrence’s 23 percent. But an April survey by Data for Progress, commissioned by Lawrence’s campaign, had him ahead at 20 percent to Brink’s 14 percent.
Maasdam has support from Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D), who used to represent the 7th District. Brink has the backing of former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who was also once Michigan governor.
Sunrise activists have confronted both candidates in recent weeks to push them on data center issues. Both said they would not support a nationwide data center moratorium.
“I think that’s a local issue to decide,” Maasdam told Sunrise. In response to the activist saying he’s accepted support from organizations funded by technology companies, he said, “I don’t know where all that comes from.”
Massdam’s campaign didn’t make him available for an interview. In a recent video on the subject, he said, “I share people’s concerns and skepticism that these giant behemoth companies are coming into the district and pushing local governments around with an army of lawyers.”
Maasdam said he supports work the state Legislature has done recently to try to keep data centers from increasing electric bills and to crack down on nondisclosure agreements companies sign with politicians.
“I want to make sure that the municipalities and local governments have the tools and the resources at their disposal to handle the negotiations with these big companies,” he said.
When Sunrise confronted Brink, she similarly deferred to local municipalities. “My view is that we should leave that to communities as to what they want to do,” she said.
At a candidate forum in June, Brink also called for environmental, electricity and transparency standards. “It requires an open and transparent conversation between those who want to come in and the people of our community and the people of our districts, and that’s what I would stand behind in Congress.”
Trump visited the district Monday, holding an event at a General Motors facility in Milford, where Barrett spoke to the crowd to boast about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Trump called Barrett a “congressman who’s doing really, really good. He’s going to have a tough race. You’ve got to help him.”
