AI fears are fueling progressive Democrat's campaign in Michigan
battleground district
[September 19, 2026]
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
MASON, Mich. (AP) — Emerson Hyde and Dan Ewart, both Republicans, stood
outside a contentious city council meeting earlier this week in the
central Michigan town of Mason and grappled with the fact that the most
prominent person to stand with them against a possible artificial
intelligence data center was the local Democratic candidate for
Congress.
Hyde, 70, a farmer and former construction worker, said he is supporting
36-year-old Will Lawrence, a longtime liberal activist who until
recently was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, instead
of incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett, a Republican who has not flatly opposed
the Mason project.
“He's been out to my house several times,” Hyde said of Lawrence.
Ewart, 43, a fellow opponent of the data center project, was startled to
hear that. After all, Republicans have tried to turn Lawrence into a
national symbol of Democratic radicalism because he once called for an
end to fossil fuels, defunding the police and maintaining open borders.
“Lawrence has said a lot of crazy stuff,” Ewart said. “I don't trust
him.”
Hyde wasn't convinced. “Right now, what's a bigger fight — a data center
or socialism?”
Data centers are the leading example of how Lawrence is trying to defy
expectations in a classic swing district by harnessing unease over the
rapid pace of artificial intelligence's development, which has created
anxieties that hopscotch ideological lines and could upend the nation's
politics. It's also created an opening for a wave of leftist Democrats
like Lawrence who have long argued that their outsider, anticorporate
message can have broader appeal than the moderate establishment.
Lawrence has widened his aim to the entire AI industry, calling for a
pause on AI development in the wake of fears from some at the companies
that the technology could eliminate humanity.
“We need to put a stop to this, because right now the whole thing is out
of control and alarm bells are going off,” Lawrence said at a press
conference where he also urged the halting of data center construction.
Democrat lets DSA membership lapse, rejects ‘ideological label’
The co-founder of the aggressive environmental group The Sunrise
Movement, Lawrence is not like the candidates who normally triumph in
Michigan's evenly-divided 7th Congressional District. The previous
Democrat to have represented the district is currently Michigan's junior
senator, Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and steadfast moderate.
Lawrence once pleaded online for moderate Democrats to “hurry up and
die.”
“He wants to show up and talk about data centers all day to distract
from the vulnerability he has on abolishing the police and the border,”
Barrett, who is seeking a second term, said in an interview.
Lawrence bristled at that charge, noting that he's been protesting data
centers since last fall when a wave of new projects was proposed across
the district and the state.
“I'm talking about it because I give a damn about the people of this
district,” Lawrence said in an interview. “My whole career is about
fighting back against corporate power, standing with regular working
people who are getting screwed over.”
Lawrence says he's moved on from many of his previous stances and online
postings, including defunding the police or having open borders — a
suggestion he said was made during more of a “performance.” He declines
to identify himself anymore as a socialist, saying an “ideological
label” leads to division. He let his membership in the DSA, whose
Lansing chapter a member has said was founded in the living room of the
building where Lawrence lived after college, lapse this summer.
Lawrence's campaign said he was not present at the founding.
Some Republicans could not believe their luck when Lawrence beat two
more traditional candidates in August's Democratic primary.
“We think it's a comical mistake by the Democratic establishment to let
somebody like him slip through,” said Ty Bommarito, chair of the
Michigan College Republicans and a senior at Michigan State University,
the 51,000-student institution in Lawrence's hometown of East Lansing.
But other observers warned against underestimating Lawrence, who made a
mark in the primary by energetically stumping across the district, which
stretches from Detroit's furthest exurbs to farming communities west of
the state capital of Lansing, and has continued at a frenetic pace
leading into the general election.
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William Lawrence, Democratic candidate for U.S. House of
Representatives in Michigan's 7th District, speaks about AI and data
centers during a campaign event Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Mason,
Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
“There's more energy in this Lawrence campaign than I've seen for a
very, very long time,” said Lingg Brewer, an 81-year-old former
Democratic state lawmaker in Lansing. “The excitement in this town I
think equals that for Obama when he first ran.”
'Right now I'm kind of a one-issue voter'
Lawrence has spent plenty of time with students on Michigan State's
sprawling campus, but he's also become a staple at meetings of residents
— often farmers or other rural denizens — fighting data center
proposals. Water-rich Michigan, whose Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
embraced the industry initially, has seen a wave of potential projects
over the past year.
On the night of the Mason council meeting, Lawrence had to pass on
appearing at a simultaneous township council meeting on the opposite
side of his district to stand against a different potential project
there.
Lawrence wore a cap in the same shade of red as President Donald Trump's
campaign hats, but with the phrase “No Data Centers in Mason” instead of
“Make America Great Again.” The standing-room-only meeting was full of
people wearing identical caps.
Lawrence's reliable opposition to data centers has won him support from
some unexpected quarters in the town of 8,000. “I'm sure I disagree with
a whole lot of his policies,” Zach Bartels, 48, who identified himself
as a conservative independent, said of Lawrence, “but right now I'm kind
of a one-issue voter.”
Patrick Lind, 51, regularly votes Republican, but he's not sure if he
will this year. “The partisan issue is going to be a lot less important
than the data center issue,” Lind said.
Ashley Wickham, 38, says she's never been involved in politics and
hadn't voted in a congressional primary before last month's, which was
open to any voter regardless of party affiliation. She cast her ballot
for Lawrence, noting that he's been to almost every anti-data center
event over the past year.
“I'm definitely going to support him, because he supported me,” said
Wickham, who bought a house in Mason just before the potential data
center was announced last November.
At the time, the city said there was not an official proposed project
but disclosed it was in discussions to annex 405 neighboring acres where
a company could build a $1 billion hyperscale facility. The community
has been convulsed with opposition ever since.
Both candidates say they want AI limits, but to different degrees
Lawrence scolded the council members, who sat stoically through dozens
of speeches. “They say there's a significant chance that all human
beings may be killed by what they're building — what they want to build
in Mason,” Lawrence said. “How hard is it to just listen to the
residents and just say ‘No’?”
Lawrence threw barbs at Barrett, whom he has slammed for accepting
donations from technology firms and voting last year for a version of
Trump's tax-and-budget bill that would have banned any state from
regulating AI for 10 years. The provision was removed from the final
version of the bill.
A representative of Barrett's office read a statement from the
congressman, who was in Washington and could not attend the meeting. The
statement reiterated Barrett's view that local officials should decide
on data centers rather than the federal government. In the interview,
Barrett said he also favors limits on AI, and the 22-year Army veteran
noted that he's proposed legislation banning its use on the battlefield.
Outside the Mason City Council chamber, Ewart said he's urged Barrett to
come out more forcefully against the project and warned the congressman
about local disappointment with him.
Ewart narrowly lost a Republican primary last month to represent the
area in the state legislature, and he warned that voters shouldn't
gamble on Lawrence even if they oppose data centers.
“The question is how fast the socialism comes in,” Ewart said.
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