The downtown streets of Mason, Mich., yield to vast stretches of open fields, where developers want to build a $1 billion data center a few miles from the farm that Bryan Droscha’s family has owned for more than a century.
He fears that construction could pollute the groundwater and air that his cattle and maple syrup operation, as well as the deer that he hunts, depend on. It’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 wasn’t sure if Mr. Lawrence could deliver on his promises, especially without a Democrat in the White House and with control of Congress unclear. So, he said, he would likely vote again for the familiar candidate, Representative Tom Barrett, a Republican seeking re-election.
Bryan Droscha’s family has owned a farm in Mason, Mich., since 1911.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York TimesMr. Droscha’s farm. Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
“You can say it 100 times a day, every day, but is it going to happen?” Mr. Droscha said last week, before feeding hay to his cows. “That’s the distrust I have.”
The anger toward the data center boom rippling through rural America permeates the front lawns, council meetings and daily conversations in Mason, a mid-Michigan county seat of about 8,300 people where residents view the potential 400-acre project as a serious threat to their groundwater, property values, environment and quality of life.
Their shared backlash has upended local politics, driving emotionally charged public meetings where residents asserted that city officials did not speak openly about the developers’ plans. In exquisite timing, it has also collided with a marquee federal contest, the most expensive House race of the midterms and one that could change the balance of power in Congress.
Even as Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Barrett both oppose the construction of a data center near Mason, their contrasting remedies have managed to divide the community at the rare time neighbors are uniting across party lines.
“It’s the biggest issue for City of Mason voters, absolutely,” said Meg Short, 41, who works in real estate, adding that she wasn’t ready to return the ballot she had marked for Mr. Lawrence and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Senate. “It’s been hard to choose on the state level who I want to represent me.”
Representative Tom Barrett, left, a Republican, is seeking re-election in Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District against William Lawrence, the Democratic challenger. Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
Mr. Lawrence, a progressive who has positioned himself as an anti-corporate outsider, has made reining in tech giants through federal intervention a central pillar of his campaign. On the Republican side, Mr. Barrett has called for repealing state tax incentives for developers but opposes federal action, saying that zoning decisions should remain entirely in local hands.
Some voters around Mason said that Mr. Lawrence’s engagement with the anti-data center community had appealed to them. Zachary Bartels, 48, a conservative who lives about a third of a mile from the proposed data center site, recalled Mr. Lawrence receiving thunderous applause after a speech against data centers in a city council meeting last month.
“He just earned — not even 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 in recent municipal meetings.
Mr. Bartels said he was undecided about who would receive his vote, even though he had helped elect Mr. Barrett and President Trump. But, Mr. Bartels added, neither House candidate had offered a detailed enough plan on how they could help Mason from Congress.
“I’m kind of going both ways,” he said.
Much like Mr. Bartels, other voters said they were torn. They said they didn’t trust local officials to stop the project. But they were also hesitant to embrace federal regulation or to trust that the progressive candidate, Mr. Lawrence, could make meaningful changes.
They have seen how quickly the nationwide data center surge has suffused Michigan: Favorable tax laws, a cool climate, vast acreages and easy access to water for cooling have made it among the more preferred destinations for artificial intelligence nationwide.
Developers want to build a data center on this land near Mason.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
Huge projects have advanced elsewhere in the state, including a $16 billion campus backed by OpenAI and Oracle in Saline Township. Mason-area residents seized on the project’s approval as proof 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 flared in Mason late last year, when city officials considered a new zoning ordinance addressing a potential data center. It passed this year, with officials saying they established guardrails, but residents said they were far too weak. The ordinance was later repealed.
Residents also forced a recall vote for a long-serving city councilwoman 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 petitioned the state to annex 400 acres of farmland into the City of Mason to secure municipal water and sewer for a data center, something many residents learned through public-records requests.
City officials have said the data center would bring tax revenues. The Trump administration has also said that the buildup of A.I. infrastructure is necessary to win technological supremacy over China.
Bryan Stone, an executive at Comino Development, the developer, said in an emailed statement on Thursday evening, about 12 hours after this article was published, that the data center would also bring construction jobs. He added that the project would not raise electricity bills, affect local aquifers or exceed local noise requirements.
“We remain hopeful the project will be built,” Mr. Stone said.
The property owners’ lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Opposition to a proposed data center has united residents of Mason.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York TimesResidents of Mason are trying to halt the type of data center construction that has advanced elsewhere in the state.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
At a city council meeting last week, about 200 residents toting signs, shirts and hats declaring “No Data Centers in Mason” packed City Hall, many of them there to offer public comments before the council voted on a plan for a proposed zoning rewrite. (They ultimately rejected it.)
One resident, Doug DeLind, a sculptor who lives next to the proposed site, took the bold step of suggesting candidates they could support. Partisan divisions surfaced.
When Mr. DeLind said he endorsed Dr. El-Sayed, who has called for a ban on superintelligent A.I. and a cabinet-level agency to regulate the fast-developing industry, someone in the crowd said, “Terrorism.”
“Not terrorism,” Mr. DeLind replied, joining residents recoiling at the baseless accusation leveled at 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 shot back, drawing applause. “I’m glad we got that out there.”
Mr. Lawrence has let his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America lapse, but still identifies as a progressive. Even with his left-wing platform, he said the issue had given him an opening to talk to conservative voters.
“There are some people that are voting with me on this issue for sure, including people who have been Republican voters in the past who see me standing alongside them,” Mr. Lawrence said in an interview.
For his part, Mr. Barrett said that he did not believe he was losing 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 U.S. Senate to do that?” he said in an interview. “And then, is President Trump going to sign it, knowing that he’s on record opposing these restrictions?”
Mayor Russell Whipple of Mason, a nonpartisan official, said he was open with residents about his conversations with data center developers.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
Mayor Russell Whipple of Mason, a nonpartisan official, disputed residents’ accusations that he had withheld information about his conversations with data center developers. He said that residents’ fears about the dangers of such a center were exaggerated, adding that the city would establish standards for noise, as well as air and water quality.
But he said he expected the midterms to be “a little more blue” in his city because of Mr. Lawrence’s visibility.
“I had an old newspaperman tell me 30 years ago: He said, ‘In small town elections, the most signs wins,’” Mr. Whipple said. “There’s more Will Lawrence than Tom Barrett signs.”
The anger toward a possible data center permeates front lawns and city council meetings in Mason.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
