Data centers loom over Georgia governor race

Georgia primary voters elevated two starkly differing visions for the future of artificial intelligence infrastructure Tuesday, setting up a gubernatorial clash that will test how far lawmakers can go in embracing or resisting data center development in the state.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic primary after suggesting she would freeze construction of the AI server hubs, as two business-friendly Republicans with ties to the data center industry — billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson and Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones — advanced to a runoff election.

Tuesday’s results underscore how data centers are becoming a mainstream political issue in one of the country’s fastest-growing locations for the AI buildout. Georgia has courted industry with generous tax incentives and a reliable power grid, helping attract sprawling server campuses from major tech companies such as Google, Meta and Amazon Web Services. But backlash over electricity costs, water use and the pace of development is spilling into statewide races.

Though data centers are unlikely to swing Georgia’s governor’s race, they have been a mobilizing issue for voters that helped deliver wins to Democratic Govs. Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey last November.

Neither party has broadly figured out how to address their constituents’ growing distaste for these hulking server hubs, though a POLITICO poll in January shows voters’ attitudes towards data centers are still mixed. This hands Democrats and Republicans an opportunity to add to their coalitions ahead of the November elections.

Republicans were on the whole more supportive of these projects in the primary race, stressing that local authorities should have the most control over where the AI infrastructure should be built.

Jackson, a political newcomer who surged ahead in the polls despite entering the race late, has invested in a data center in Texas and is pitching them to rural voters as an economic opportunity. Jones, who Trump endorsed last year and was once on a glidepath to clinch his party’s nomination, has faced allegations that he pushed for policies that cleared the path to build a sprawling data center in his home county that would benefit his family. Jones previously told POLITICO that neither he nor his family are invested in any local data centers directly.

Democratic gubernatorial candidates were more outspoken about wanting to regulate the industry and protect Georgians from electricity price hikes, though some of the more hardline candidates who made data centers a key campaign issue failed to advance. Democrats are looking to flip control of the governor’s mansion for the first time in more than two decades.

Lance Bottoms, who secured her spot on the Democratic ticket by a landslide, said in April she’d like Georgia to “press pause” on data center buildouts pending a review of their impact. It represents a U-turn from her prior public embrace of new AI infrastructure projects arriving in Georgia: In 2021, then-Mayor Lance Bottoms joined Microsoft President Brad Smith to promote a 90-acre campus the company announced it would build in Atlanta’s Grove Park neighborhood.

Jason Esteves, a former state senator, had campaigned to abolish tax incentives for data centers that make Georgia an attractive destination for these AI megaprojects and held special events aimed at discussing their growth.