The Anti-Data-Center Movement Is Reshaping Michigan Politics

反数据中心运动正在重塑密歇根州的政治格局

Will Lawrence is one of the founders of the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots climate activism group. Now, he’s running for Congress in a Michigan swing district, one of a growing handful of candidates around the country calling for a moratorium on data center development. 威尔·劳伦斯（Will Lawrence）是基层气候行动组织“日出运动”（Sunrise Movement）的创始人之一。目前，他正在密歇根州的一个摇摆选区竞选国会议员，是全国范围内呼吁暂停数据中心开发的候选人之一。

Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed him, calling Lawrence a candidate who will “demand real accountability for big tech and AI companies.” And the backlash to data centers, Lawrence says, is helping him understand rural resistance to another kind of large-scale industrial project in the state: utility-scale renewable energy. 参议员伯尼·桑德斯（Bernie Sanders）已公开支持他，称劳伦斯是一位将“要求大型科技公司和人工智能公司承担真正责任”的候选人。劳伦斯表示，针对数据中心的强烈抵制，也让他理解了农村地区对该州另一种大型工业项目——公用事业规模可再生能源——的抵触情绪。

Lawrence’s campaign sees data centers as a potent topic to rally voters to his side in the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 7th district, to be held in August. Internal polling conducted by Data for Progress of likely Democratic primary voters in the district shared with WIRED shows that more than 40 percent of respondents were “much more likely” to vote for a candidate who opposed data centers. The message resonated even more with respondents under 45: Almost 80 percent of younger voters said they’d be much more likely or more likely to support an anti-data-center candidate. (The 7th district includes the college county of Ingham.) 劳伦斯的竞选团队认为，数据中心是一个强有力的议题，可以帮助他在8月份举行的密歇根州第7选区民主党初选中争取选民支持。根据“进步数据”（Data for Progress）为该选区潜在民主党初选选民进行的内部民调显示，超过40%的受访者表示“更有可能”投票给反对数据中心的候选人。这一信息在45岁以下的受访者中引起了更强烈的共鸣：近80%的年轻选民表示，他们更有可能或非常有可能支持反数据中心的候选人。（第7选区包括拥有大学的英厄姆县。）

Data centers “certainly [weren’t] the issue I expected to be talking about on the campaign,” Lawrence tells WIRED. Voters, he says, started organically approaching him at town halls and other meetings after he announced his candidacy last summer, asking for his advice as a longtime organizer about how to channel the anti-data-center energy among their neighbors into something productive. 劳伦斯告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志：“这绝对不是我竞选时预期会讨论的问题。”他说，自从去年夏天宣布参选以来，选民们开始在市政厅会议和其他聚会上自发地接触他，并以他作为资深组织者的身份寻求建议，询问如何将邻里间对数据中心的抵制情绪转化为建设性的行动。

“People feel like they’re being utterly disrespected by the companies and the local officials who are welcoming them into town,” he says. “人们感到自己受到了那些欢迎数据中心入驻的公司和当地官员的彻底蔑视，”他说。

The Data for Progress poll put Lawrence ahead of both his opponents in the primary. Another poll commissioned by one of his opponents and released in April shows Lawrence winning the primary, though it also shows the vast majority of voters remain undecided. Lawrence also remains a distant third in fundraising. “进步数据”的民调显示，劳伦斯在初选中领先于他的两位竞争对手。另一项由其对手委托并于4月发布的民调也显示劳伦斯将赢得初选，尽管民调同时显示绝大多数选民仍未做出决定。此外，劳伦斯的筹款额目前仍排在第三位，差距较大。

There are at least 11 data centers planned throughout Michigan, according to the clean-energy database Cleanview. Significant local pushback in two townships in the 7th district have stalled at least two planned projects over the past year. But data center developers have found ways around local opposition elsewhere in the state. After a township in the 6th district voted against an Oracle data center earlier this year, the company sued, and the town let development begin rather than engage in a costly court battle. 根据清洁能源数据库Cleanview的数据，密歇根州全境至少有11个数据中心项目正在规划中。过去一年里，第7选区内两个乡镇的强烈抵制导致至少两个规划项目陷入停滞。但数据中心开发商在州内其他地区找到了绕过当地反对意见的方法。今年早些时候，第6选区的一个乡镇投票反对甲骨文（Oracle）的数据中心项目，随后该公司提起诉讼，该镇最终选择让项目开工，而不是陷入昂贵的法律诉讼。

Earlier this month, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared at the opening of the Oracle data center, where she was photographed smiling next to OpenAI’s Sam Altman and praised the $16 billion investment. 本月初，密歇根州州长格雷琴·惠特默（Gretchen Whitmer）出席了甲骨文数据中心的开幕仪式，她被拍到与OpenAI的萨姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）并肩微笑，并对这笔160亿美元的投资大加赞赏。

“Any candidate worth their weight knows that these data centers are toxic,” says Cooper Teboe, a Democratic strategist based in California. Candidates that don’t recognize this, Teboe says, “are not candidates that are going to win.” “任何称职的候选人都知道这些数据中心是有害的，”加州的民主党战略家库珀·特博（Cooper Teboe）表示。特博认为，那些没有意识到这一点的候选人，“是不可能获胜的。”

Christy McGillivray, the executive director of Voters Not Politicians, a Michigan-based democracy reform organization, says that Whitmer’s appearance at the opening was a major misstep for the governor, who’s been floated as a 2028 presidential contender. 密歇根州民主改革组织“选民而非政客”（Voters Not Politicians）的执行董事克里斯蒂·麦吉利夫雷（Christy McGillivray）表示，惠特默出席开幕式对这位被视为2028年总统候选人的州长来说是一个重大失误。

“It literally blew my mind,” she says. “I was like, ‘Are you trying to hurt the entire Democratic party?’” “这简直让我震惊，”她说。“我当时想，‘你这是在试图伤害整个民主党吗？’”

While on the campaign trail, Lawrence says that he met with data center protesters who differed significantly with him politically. These included people opposed to data center construction who were also opposed to solar and wind projects being built on farmland. 在竞选过程中，劳伦斯表示他遇到了一些在政治立场上与他大相径庭的数据中心抗议者。这些人不仅反对建设数据中心，同时也反对在农田上建设太阳能和风能项目。

Michigan is a hotbed of resistance to renewable energy projects. A 2025 review ranks it as the state with the largest number of local restrictions: More than 60 local governments in Michigan passed ordinances, moratoriums, or other restrictions on wind and solar development between 2011 and 2024. Local opposition, the report found, had stalled or blocked at least 28 projects across the state. 密歇根州是可再生能源项目抵制运动的温床。2025年的一项评估将其列为地方限制措施最多的州：2011年至2024年间，密歇根州有60多个地方政府通过了针对风能和太阳能开发的条例、暂停令或其他限制措施。报告发现，当地的反对意见已导致全州至少28个项目停滞或被封杀。

In 2023, Whitmer signed a law allowing renewable energy developers to more easily bypass local ordinances against wind and solar construction, making it much easier for big developers to site projects on rural land. It has since prompted backlash from many towns and counties that had passed ordinances, including a lawsuit filed by dozens of townships against the state, many in the 7th district. Two officials from townships in the district said in a statement in 2025 that renewable energy developments “threaten to turn our fertile soil into wastelands, putting at risk the livelihoods of those who have worked the land for decades.” (There is no evidence that renewables do long-term damage to soil.) 2023年，惠特默签署了一项法律，允许可再生能源开发商更容易地绕过地方上针对风能和太阳能建设的条例，这使得大型开发商在农村土地上选址项目变得容易得多。此举引发了许多已通过相关条例的城镇和县的强烈抵制，包括数十个乡镇对州政府提起的诉讼，其中许多乡镇位于第7选区。该选区两个乡镇的官员在2025年的一份声明中表示，可再生能源开发“威胁要将我们的肥沃土壤变成荒地，危及那些耕作了几十年的土地所有者的生计。”（目前没有证据表明可再生能源会对土壤造成长期损害。）

Lawrence maintains that he supports renewable energy, especially community-owned and -operated models. (In 2023, the same year the law to bypass ordinances was passed, the Michigan legislature did not pass initiatives that would have supported community solar.) But the response to data centers, he says, has helped him understand why Michiganders are also resistant to seeing big renewable energy projects come to town. 劳伦斯坚持认为他支持可再生能源，特别是社区拥有和运营的模式。（2023年，即绕过地方条例的法律通过的同一年，密歇根州立法机构并未通过支持社区太阳能的倡议。）但他表示，对数据中心的反应让他理解了为什么密歇根人也抵制大型可再生能源项目进入他们的城镇。

“The pattern that I see that is similar with the data center issue is people don’t feel that they have control over the future of their own community,” he says. “That is fostering backlash. Then they have people who mostly live in cities lecturing to them and saying, ‘Don’t you understand? This is the price of progress.’” “我看到的与数据中心问题相似的模式是，人们觉得他们无法掌控自己社区的未来，”他说。“这正在加剧抵制情绪。然后，那些大多住在城市里的人又对他们说教，说：‘难道你们不明白吗？这就是进步的代价。’”

Teboe agrees with Lawrence that tech companies need to rethink how they’re approaching communities with proposals for projects. 特博同意劳伦斯的观点，即科技公司需要重新思考他们如何向社区提出项目建议。

“Ninety-nine percent of the tech executives think that of course people will love these things,” he says. “They cannot conceive of a world where the first thought someone has upon seeing a data center in their community isn’t ‘Wow, the future is amazing,’ but is ‘What the fuck are you doing in my backyard?’” “99%的科技高管认为人们理所当然会喜欢这些东西，”他说。“他们无法想象这样一个世界：当人们在社区看到数据中心时，第一反应不是‘哇，未来太棒了’，而是‘你到底在我的后院搞什么鬼？’”

Update: 6/29/2026, 4:30 PM EDT 更新：2026年6月29日，美国东部时间下午4:30