PORTAGE, WI – On Day Three of the general election campaign, during a stop in Portage, David Crowley made it clear: local communities get the final say on whether a data center gets built in their backyard and the free ride these corporations are getting is about to come to an end. 

As governor, Crowley would let communities decide for themselves whether they want a data center at all — and if they say no, that decision would be honored. If a community says yes, the developer must:

  • Commit to full transparency by banning NDAs 
  • Provide 100% renewable energy, which will combat the amount of coal we burn 
  • Cover 100% of the costs of infrastructure and grid upgrades 
  • Require contributions to the state’s Focus on Energy fund, which could be used to bring down utility rates for Wisconsinites statewide
  • Build the data centers with union labor, project labor agreements, and community benefit agreements
  • Create good-paying, family-supporting jobs
  • Protect local water and our environment as a whole

The contrast with Tom Tiffany is stark: he has never introduced legislation regulating data centers in Congress, has never backed a moratorium, and is pushing to keep aging coal plants online to help power the very data centers he claims to be tough on. Instead, he has voted for trillions of dollars in permanent corporate tax breaks through the One Big Beautiful Bill and a 10-year ban on state and local governments enforcing any AI regulation.

David Crowley’s Full Remarks:  

“Communities should be able to make a decision whether or not they want a data center. It shouldn’t be steamrolled; it should be brought to the table. If they don’t want a data center, they shouldn’t be forced to have one. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about that.

If they decide to make their own decision, they need to be transparent. They need to protect taxpayers. They need to increase the level of renewable energy production and protect our water. They need to do all of that while providing family-sustaining opportunities for Wisconsinites, rather than bringing people into Wisconsin. If they make a decision not to do it, we need to honor that decision. We need to make sure that we are holding these folks accountable because, right now, they’re getting all these tax breaks and steamrolling local communities.

We know why we’re in this position. Many of us may not know it is because of Tom Tiffany and Donald Trump. Tom Tiffany has not introduced any legislation to put any regulations on data centers across this country. That is exactly what we need. That’s why we have a focus on creating state regulations to protect our communities across this country.

Tom Tiffany and MAGA extremists—I like to call him ‘Terrible Tom Tiffany’—want to continue to give them tax breaks, and we cannot allow that. These big tech companies need to be held accountable, they need to be paying their fair share, and we need to do everything that we can to protect the state of Wisconsin.

As we all know, they would love to see more coal being burned all throughout this country.”