Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, is looking to once again hold off challenger Steve Rydzewski in the GOP primary to represent Assembly District 37.

In one of the district’s most populous cities, Beaver Dam, Meta is building a $1 billion, 700,000-square-foot data center. The two candidates primarily differ on what role the state should play in regulating data center developments.

Born secured 69.4% of the votes to Rydzewski’s 30.6% in the 2024 GOP primary.

Rydzewski would like to see a two-year data center construction moratorium but said he would settle for 18 months. He said enacting a moratorium is one of the highest priorities in his campaign.

“Two years would be best, in my opinion, then the build-out of these things that are already approved happens, and the people living next to it can see both positive and negative consequences. And for us here at Beaver Dam, we’re seeing the negative consequences,” Rydzewski said. 

Rydzewski, who has spent most of his career working in cheese factories, said he’d like to see more transparency in government overall but specifically pointed to the use of NDAs during data center development.

Born is not supportive of a statewide moratorium on data center construction and said he would defer to local governments on whether to have a moratorium in their area. He would like to see some form of state regulation on these types of projects.

Born cites his support of AB 840, which passed in the Assembly but did not make it to the Senate floor, as how he’d like to address data center developments.

The bill would have required PSC to ensure costs for electric infrastructure expansion related to data centers would not be passed onto ratepayers. It also would have required closed-loop cooling systems for water usage. 

“We have to make sure that communities are protected, and some of it might be a belt and suspenders kind of approach because the utilities in the case of my area, Meta is going to pay for their stuff, but we just want to make sure that ratepayers are protected,” said Born.

Rydzweski said the state’s budget is “grossly expanding at a rapid pace” and criticized Born’s role as co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee.

“The more money that’s taken from the people, used by the government, abused by the government, and then they offer some back to us if we grovel enough. I’m quite passionate about reducing the tax base and cutting fraud and abuse out of our state budgets,” Rydzewski said.

Born has pointed to his past work to remove utility taxes as a way he’s been working to make life more affordable for his constituents. He also highlighted his support for the $1.8 billion surplus package that would have returned money to taxpayers while adding one-time funding for special education.

“I’ve had a lot of good conversations at events on the doors in the district. Folks appreciate the work that we’ve been trying to do to cut taxes and get more money back into the people’s hands to help with these affordability issues that we’re seeing,” Born said.