Candidates Are Signing a Pact Promising Action on Data

What happened

Dan Osborn was finishing up his fourth town hall last Sunday, he says, when a “hardcore MAGA” guy approached him. Osborn, who is running for the US Senate in Nebraska as an independent against Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts, said that he and the man didn’t have much common ground—at first. ’” Osborn says.

“Some of them don’t necessarily want to say no to the possibility that a data center project can help with those things. At the same time, AI is expected to be incredibly disruptive unless guardrails are put in place. ” But Osborn, who’s campaigning in rural areas where worried farmers are concerned about losing their land to development, also says that Congress needs to step in to regulate data centers.

“We’ve got to get this right,” he says. ” Osborn’s position is increasingly common across the political spectrum. In recent weeks, governors who have previously been all in on data center development, like Pennsylvania Democrat Josh Shapiro and Texas Republican Greg Abbott, have taken major steps to assure voters that they are regulating data center development.

Why it matters

” Osborn is one of more than 15 politicians running for office in states across the country who have signed on to the AI Pact, a set of five promises around regulating both data centers and AI itself.

As concerns about data centers have exploded in the midterm cycle, politicians are scrambling to respond to voters’ worries about their environmental impacts, the secrecy surrounding their construction, and the corporate power behind them. ” The pact is an offshoot of the Political Integrity Project, an anti-money-in-politics group that has a similar pledge for candidates.

Daniel Lobo-Lewis, one of the founders, says that he and his cofounders came up with the five promises in the AI Pact—which include advocating for mandatory safety reviews for AI models, supporting policies that would create an AI dividend for workers, and ensuring that consumers and companies can sue over harms caused by models—by networking with AI safety groups and other political organizations working on AI legislation.

Some of the signers have built their campaigns around opposition to data centers and Big Tech, like Representative Justin Pearson, a Tennessee Democrat who rose to national prominence pushing back against pollution from SpaceX’s data centers, and Will Lawrence, a left candidate who won a competitive primary in Michigan in a district rife with data center opposition.

” This kind of measured language is intentional, Lobo-Lewis says, and is meant to be a “floor” for candidates to sign on to—especially those with strong ties to labor. ) “Candidates in swing seats are laser-focused on affordability, creating jobs, and lowering costs,” says Alexander McCoy, a progressive strategist working on AI issues.

What to watch

The Trump administration has also encouraged AI companies, governors, and utilities to sign on to a voluntary pledge to protect ratepayers from electricity increases due to data centers. Lobo-Lewis says that the pact provides assurances for much stronger protections, and he dismisses the White House’s actions on AI as just lip service.

“I can’t imagine [the Trump administration] would actually want to do mandatory safety reviews for models, or nationwide tax breaks for data center construction,” he says. ” “These data centers are supporting an AI industry that has no rules. It threatens our jobs, livelihood, health, safety, and well-being.