DSA candidate pushes federal AI datacenter moratorium with Michigan early voting underway

Michigan House candidate and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Will Lawrence advocated for a national data center moratorium Saturday during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

“What I see is that there is an urgent need to have a federal moratorium on new AI data centers so that we can have a national conversation about if we’re going to be generating this hyper intelligent AI, what’s the best way to do it, and how do we ensure that it benefits everybody rather than just a few billionaires in Silicon Valley?” Lawrence said at a campaign event in South Lansing, Michigan.

“I do support a federal moratorium because there may be a right way to build these data centers and generate super-intelligent AI, but what’s happening now is the wrong way, because it’s abandoning the basic principles of democracy and self-determination that are foundational to the American identity,” he also said.

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“You have billionaires from Silicon Valley and Wall Street who are coming into small towns and then just telling everybody, ‘Trust us, trust us, your energy bills aren’t going to rise. This is going to be a great deal for everybody,'” Lawrence continued.

In addition to backing a data center ban, Lawrence also bashed President Donald Trump for a number of policies and, like other DSA members, advocated for major campaign finance reform in the form of publicly funded elections.

“There’s a lot of money in politics, there’s no doubt about it. And, I think it does a disservice to the democratic process,” Lawrence said.

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He then took aim at the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, a landmark 2010 decision which ruled that political contributions should be treated as a First Amendment-protected form of free speech.

“Unless there’s change in the Supreme Court, Citizens United will need to be overturned with a constitutional amendment because it’s a Supreme Court decision. But beyond just ending Citizens United, which deals with the dark money in politics, I also support public financing of elections, which would mean that every single candidate who has legitimate grassroots support gets access to the same pool of public funding and the same amount of dollars to run their campaign with,” he said.

Lawrence avoided a question about a broader slate of DSA policies – such as abolishing the Supreme Court, the presidency and the Senate – potentially turning off centrist voters.

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“That’s not what we’re talking about. So I can’t speak to whether people are turned off by it or not. We’re focused on stopping these AI data centers, stopping these wars around the world, and ensuring that everybody has health care,” he responded.

Lawrence, who’s backed by prominent leftists like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is running in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary to claim the House seat in Michigan’s 7th district.

The district is currently represented by Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., a first term congressman who won the seat after current Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., vacated it to run for Senate.

Lawrence is vying with a number of other Democratic candidates to face off against Barrett in November’s election, including former Obama National Security Council member and U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.

Fox News Digital contacted the Barrett and Brink campaigns and the DSA for comment.