The Dem-aligned House Majority PAC released a new TV ad knocking “data center Derrick Van Orden” for taking tens of thousands in donations from the industry.
The narrator opens the new ad saying if AI could make its own congressman, it’d be Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien. The narrator adds Van Orden voted to give the data center industry more than $80 million in tax breaks after taking tens of thousands in campaign cash.
The narrator then adds Van Orden “just shrugs” over data centers jacking up power bills and polluting drinking water, saying “You’re gonna have to have these data centers.”
The spot concludes, “Wisconsin, we don’t have to have data center Derrick Van Orden anymore.”
Data centers have emerged as one of several key issues in the rematch between Van Orden and Dem Rebecca Cooke. At least two different billion-dollar proposals have emerged in the district in the last two years. Cooke has called for a federal moratorium on data center development, while Van Orden has emphasized protecting farmland and placing data centers on military bases.
