Data centers become a flashpoint in Wisconsin politics
Lawmakers in Washington often insist data centers, which require thousands of acres and enormous amounts of energy, are a municipal issue. But residents organizing against their construction say candidates up and down the ballot will have to answer for their concerns — especially if those politicians are going to campaign on affordability.
“This absolutely plays into affordability,” said Christine Le Jeune, a founding organizer of Great Lakes Neighbors United in Wisconsin. “People are concerned about rapidly rising energy prices.”
Le Jeune’s group launched a petition to recall the mayor of Port Washington, a Wisconsin town on Lake Michigan where construction began last month on a $15 billion data center to service OpenAI and Oracle through the Stargate project backed by President Donald Trump.
The recall effort is one of the bolder actions in a wave of local protests against data centers sweeping Wisconsin and the country.
https://wisconsinwatch.org/2026/01/wisconsin-data-centers-politics-ai-port-washington-federal-lawmakers/