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Lawmaker Who Wants Data Center Pause Wins Kansas Democratic Primary (nytimes.com) 47

Posted by BeauHD from the shifting-sentiments dept.
Kansas Democrats nominated State Senator Cindy Holscher for governor after she defeated party-backed rival Ethan Corson. "The race became a test of what sort of candidate Democratic voters prefer in what is expected to be a challenging general election race: a more moderate candidate like Mr. Corson with endorsements from party leaders or an outspoken populist like Ms. Holscher, who spoke out against data centers and the political establishment," reports The New York Times. From the repot: Even in a national political environment that could favor Democrats, Republicans see the Kansas governorship as among their best opportunities for flipping a seat. President Trump carried Kansas by 16 percentage points in 2024, and Republicans hold supermajorities in the State Legislature. Voters in the Republican primary for governor nominated Ty Masterson, the president of the Kansas Senate and the recipient of Mr. Trump's endorsement, according to The A.P.

Ms. Holscher, who is from suburban Kansas City, sought out a lane to Mr. Corson's political left and made inroads with some of the state's progressive voters. She emphasized her role in unwinding former Gov. Sam Brownback's tax policies and called for a moratorium on data centers. She also spoke against a final deal to lure the Kansas City Chiefs across the state line from Missouri. Ms. Holscher presented an implicit critique of Ms. Kelly's stewardship of Kansas, referring to Mr. Corson as part of a political establishment that was too cozy with corporations and out of touch with the party's voters. "I'm the only Democrat in this race to call for a moratorium on data centers because we have to get these guardrails in place," said Holscher in an interview. "We are having our people and our resources exploited."

Lawmaker Who Wants Data Center Pause Wins Kansas Democratic Primary More | Reply

Lawmaker Who Wants Data Center Pause Wins Kansas Democratic Primary

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  • They'll elect a Republican who will sell their public lands to data centers and force women to rot to death from the inside out during pregnancy complications "for Jesus." Then they'll blame Democrats and use the federal government to pick our pockets.

    • This.

      Primaries are almost always a circle jerk. Where the rubber meets road will be the general election, and I don't even have to look on Kashi/Polymarket to tell you how that's going to turn out in a +16 Trump district.

    • Northern VA is a liberal utopia and there are data centers everywhere.

      • And because of it, they could zero out every homeowner's property taxes. I don't think they have, and they probably won't because liberals in government are incredibly greedy, but they absolutely could.

  • "Trump carried Kansas by 16 percentage points in 2024"
    Fool me twice..

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
      This is just a Democrat primary they still have to win their election. And if they do it's probably because they are in a heavily gerrymandered district...

      The Democrats are going to have a hard time leaning into anti-data Center because even though it's extremely popular the most powerful and wealthy members of the Epstein class on Earth have decided whether you and I like it or not data centers are getting built and we're all just going to have to pay for it because you don't get rich by paying for thi

      • Building data centers also does create some short-term work for the trade industry. More demand for electricity would actually be a good thing too, if the need was met by building new renewable generation capacity, rather than just jacking up prices.

        Basically, it's the lack of regulation that's the problem - not the data centers.

      • This is about electing the governor.

        It is a statewide election, so gerrymandering is irrelevant.

  • The "data center" hot topic... (Score:4, Informative)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2026 @03:24PM (#66274228) Journal

    Reality is? The places that allow new data centers where they interfere with the existing population are just going to wind up with regrets.

    They remind me a bit of the battles over putting in new landfills/dumps. Everyone knows we need them, but it's always "not in my back yard"!

    The thing is? The need for more data centers is questionable. If all this AI growth turns the corner and companies decide much of it was just overblown hype? Then those data centers will quickly wind back down again.

    Even in "best case" scenarios, they don't employ many people once they're constructed, and they use large amounts of resources -- which tend to be sold at discounted rates as part of the deals struck when they move into an area. Everyone else gets stuck covering any losses by way of rate increases.

    A landfill may smell bad, but it's not using up the lion's share of available electric power in my town or using a big portion of available clean water.

    • A landfill may smell bad, but it's not using up the lion's share of available electric power in my town or using a big portion of available clean water.

      Landfills sometimes do end up contaminating the groundwater.

      Also, it's absolutely possible to cool data centers without using any water at all. You'll just use more electricity. The issue mostly that the water is cheaper than the electricity.

      • You will also need more space for radiators or money and maybe also space for ground loops of you are not using cooling towers. It's not just more electricity

      • Possible but it's easy enough to clean up in a pinch as long as you catch it and it's easy enough to catch early on unless you have underfunded your regulatory agencies because somebody called them bureaucrats...
      • Yup. There's a landfill in Goshen NY that's built on top of the aquifer. My water stank like you wouldn't believe.

    • Even in "best case" scenarios, they don't employ many people once they're constructed, and they use large amounts of resources -- which tend to be sold at discounted rates as part of the deals struck when they move into an area. Everyone else gets stuck covering any losses by way of rate increases.

      A landfill may smell bad, but it's not using up the lion's share of available electric power in my town or using a big portion of available clean water.

      Whether "AI" is hype or will burst its bubble remains to be seen...nobody can be sure yet, but there are huge bets that it will persist in one form or another.

      But your above comments are completely lacking any grounding in facts. At best they are something you read in some FUD newspaper article with an agenda against datacenters for some reason they can't really explain. I'll buy an argument that they make noise...chillers definitely do...but the rest is nonsense and factually untrue.

      • SpaceX has 1.4GW of (nameplate) compute infrastructure, and they are not the biggest player. >1GW load, with plans to double it within 6 months, is a real concern for infrastructure.

        California has a peak electrical demand around 35-40GW as a frame of reference. Load growth on the peak of more than ~300MW is a very big deal. When you have 5-10 players collectively looking at adding >20MW over the next two years there are no cheap and easy solutions for additional capacity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      The need for more data centers is questionable. If all this AI growth turns the corner and companies decide much of it was just overblown hype? Then those data centers will quickly wind back down again.

      In the worst case, they'll add interior walls (and maybe add some windows to the exterior walls), and resell it as office space, residential space, factory space, retail distribution space, or even a community library. After all, floors built to support racks of equipment should handle the weight and distribution of stacks of books without breaking a sweat.

      So the construction might be overkill for what they eventually get used for, but it's not like a newly built, solid building isn't going to find a use.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pla ( 258480 )
        I'd love an apartment that has 480V service and a sub-floor plenum!

        Might be tough to meet egress though, unless you're splitting each floor into "apartments" the size of a small grocery store (or insanely long and narrow).
      • What are these things you call books?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          What are these things you call books?

          They're things you find in a place called a liiiiiii-brary.

      • You're right, but the problem is going to be location in many cases. Would a former data center make a great public library? Technically, it might. But when it was built out in the middle of some farm land, where they originally got a good deal on the land by buying some farmers out who were willing to sell? Now, it might not make so much sense.

        Or as an example closer to home for me? Our own city is fielding requests to construct data centers right now. There are rumors about our now closed-down steel plant

    • And when we hit the general election and there is literally billions of dollars of money blasting the eyeballs of your neighbors that's going to be tough. Remember it's not just about convincing you it's about getting voter turnout from people who are otherwise super low information and haven't got a clue what dropping a data center in there county means and even if they did they wouldn't have the mental capacity to put two and two together...

      This is why education especially the humanities is so importa

    • or using a big portion of available clean water.

      It is worth noting that datacentres do not remotely use a big portion of available clean water. In the USA it's use is 2% of the total water consumption, compared to some . That is a discussion that is missing the point. The point is that datacentres use water for questionable purposes and goals. The vast majority of water use (about half) is irrigation and agrculture, followed by municipal supply (20-30% depending on location). The rest is industrial.

      But all those other categories at least provide somethin

    • You're missing something important. Taxes. Datacenters bring in so much money to counties that other property taxes can be reduced or eliminated. In Louden County, datacenters provide significantly more tax revenue than the county spends ($35 million more in 2024). They could end all other property taxes and still have tens of millions more to spend than the county ever had.

      That's a good deal.

  • Bad news (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NotEmmanuelGoldstein ( 6423622 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2026 @03:44PM (#66274262)

    ... too cozy with corporations and out of touch with the party's voters.

    Such anti-establishment candidates have won recent elections but never on a federal level. The journalistic dishonesty and dark money poured into manipulating voters to accept right-wing outcomes cannot be stopped by truth and the lessons of history.

    The corporations will spend their money attacking her popularity and platform, and returning the election to a weak contest between a do-nothing Democrat and a break-everything Republican.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by whitroth ( 9367 )

      Never on a federal leval? So, Bernie isn't a Senator, and AOC isn't in Congress, or, for that matter, my Rep, Raskin, isn't in Congress?

      You'd almost think that people voting Dems were tired of Reagan Republicans in a blue suit...

    • And at the bottom of this page was this story link - "A Dark Money Group Is Secretly Funding High-Profile Democratic Influencers" https://politics.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]

      And even better, they're funded by foreign sources. Like $243 million from a Swiss billionaire to "(re)interpret the American Constitution". https://americansforpublictrus... [americansf...ctrust.org]

      And here's a lesson from history: After over a century of testing, Socialism has only every produced inequality, suffering, and genocide. Never has it resulted in anyth

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