Will Lawrence, a Democratic Socialists of America member running for Congress in Michigan’s 7th District, is calling for a federal moratorium on new artificial intelligence data centers, arguing that the current construction boom is being driven by wealthy investors rather than the communities affected by it.
At a campaign event in South Lansing, Lawrence said the country needs to pause and have a broader conversation about how AI should be developed. «What I see is that there is an urgent need to have a federal moratorium on new AI data centers so that we can have a national conversation about, if we’re going to be generating this hyper-intelligent AI, what’s the best way to do it and how do we ensure that it benefits everybody rather than just a few billionaires in Silicon Valley?» he said.
Lawrence said there may be a right way to build data centers and generate super-intelligent AI, but «what’s happening now is the wrong way, because it’s abandoning the basic principles of democracy and self-determination that are foundational to the American identity.» He said billionaires from Silicon Valley and Wall Street are arriving in small towns and asking residents to trust that energy bills will not rise and that the projects will be a good deal for everyone.
Beyond data centers, Lawrence took aim at the role of money in politics. He criticized President Donald Trump’s policies and joined other DSA members in backing publicly funded elections. Lawrence said there is a lot of money in politics and that it does a disservice to the democratic process.
He also pointed to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, the 2010 decision that treated political contributions as a form of protected speech. Lawrence said the ruling should ultimately be overturned through a constitutional amendment unless the court changes. «Unless there’s change in the Supreme Court, Citizens United will need to be overturned with a constitutional amendment because it’s a Supreme Court decision,» he said. «But beyond just ending Citizens United, which deals with the dark money in politics, I also support public financing of elections, which would mean that every single candidate who has legitimate grassroots support gets access to the same pool of public funding and the same amount of dollars to run their campaign with.»
When asked whether other DSA positions, such as abolishing the Supreme Court, the presidency and the Senate, could turn off more moderate voters, Lawrence declined to engage with that part of the platform. «That’s not what we’re talking about,» he said. «So, I can’t speak to whether people are turned off by it or not. We’re focused on stopping these AI data centers, stopping these wars around the world and ensuring that everybody has health care.»
Lawrence is competing in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary for Michigan’s 7th District, a seat currently held by Republican Rep. Tom Barrett. Barrett, a first-term congressman, won the seat after Elissa Slotkin vacated it to run for the Senate. Lawrence’s primary challengers include Bridget Brink, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and former Obama National Security Council member. The district’s Democratic nominee will face Barrett in the November general election, and early voting in Michigan is already underway.
Lawrence has picked up backing from prominent national left-wing figures, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. His campaign message has centered on stopping AI data centers, opposing foreign wars and expanding health care access, along with reducing the influence of big money in elections.
