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Data Center Foe Wins Michigan Primary. Polls Show 63% of Voters Back a Pause.

Resist Now 3 min read

William Lawrence Wins Michigan’s 7th District Democratic Primary

William Lawrence, co-founder of the youth climate organization the Sunrise Movement, won the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 7th congressional district on August 5, 2026, running in part on a call for a moratorium on new AI data center construction.

Lawrence, 36, defeated Bridget Brink, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and Slovakia, and Matt Maasdam, a former Navy SEAL and military aide to Barack Obama. He now faces Republican incumbent Tom Barrett in the November general election.

Data Centers Are Straining the Grid in Swing Districts

Lawrence argued throughout the campaign that data center expansion places an unplanned burden on the electrical grid without a clean energy plan to match. In May 2026, he said the centers put “a tremendous, unprecedented and unexpected burden on the grid to increase overall demand” with “no plan to do that in a clean way.”

“Tonight the people of Michigan’s 7th district sent a clear message: They are tired of Silicon Valley billionaires and DC insiders determining the future of our towns and our country.”

William Lawrence, Democratic nominee, Michigan 7th District, August 5, 2026

The race tested whether data center opposition can move votes in competitive districts. Lawrence won 49% in Mason, a three-way race in a town where a data center has been proposed, a margin his campaign manager Stevie O’Hanlon called a rejection of “DC insiders.”

Broad Voter Support Crosses Party Lines

Opposition to unchecked data center construction is not a fringe position. A Data for Progress poll found that 63% of U.S. voters, including 66% of independents and 47% of Republicans, said they were more likely to support a candidate calling for a pause on new data center construction.

63% of U.S. voters support pausing data center construction, including nearly half of Republicans, per Data for Progress

That number matters for November. Michigan’s 7th is a swing district where Barrett holds the seat. Lawrence’s endorsers include Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Rashida Tlaib, and progressive U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

What You Can Do Now

  1. Contact your U.S. House representative at (202) 225-3121 and ask them to support a federal data center siting moratorium until grid impact studies and clean energy requirements are in place. Tell them 63% of voters, including nearly half of Republicans, back a pause.

  2. Contact your state legislature. Michigan’s state energy office oversees utility load planning. Find your state legislators at openstates.org and ask them to require public hearings before new large-load data center projects receive grid interconnection approvals.

  3. Look up your utility’s integrated resource plan at your state public utilities commission website. These plans project future electricity demand. File a public comment demanding that data center load growth be disclosed and that clean energy capacity be required to match it.

  4. If you live in Michigan’s 7th District, Lawrence faces a competitive general election against incumbent Tom Barrett in November 2026. Contact the Ingham County Democrats at inghamdems.com to volunteer or request absentee ballot information from your county clerk.

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