Crucial House Race Becomes Data Center Battle
Bob Harvie has dramatically changed his position on data centers in a bid to unseat Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) in Pennsylvania’s 1st District.
The Democrat challenging longtime incumbent Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) in a swing district in the Philadelphia suburbs made banning data centers the centerpiece of his campaign on Thursday despite his past support for one such project in Pennsylvania.
Bob Harvie, a member of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, released a TV ad accusing Big Tech of “taking over our lives” and rapaciously grabbing land, water and electricity.
“Tech got Brian Fitzpatrick, too,” Harvie says in the ad, tying Fitzpatrick to a tax break for development in a bill Republicans passed last year. “After taking their money, he voted for billions in data center tax breaks and made it impossible for communities like ours to stop new sites.”
Harvie then says “I want a moratorium” on data centers, hopping on a bandwagon started by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) back in March. Since then, the likes of moderate New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican leading one of the reddest states in the country, have also sought to pause data center development.
Harvie’s position on data centers has shifted as the electricity-sucking AI facilities have become increasingly toxic in political polls, and not long after House Democrats’ political apparatus released a memo instructing Democrats to aggressively run against the projects, saying the party should release ads “touching a conspiratorial nerve that runs through the data center discourse among voters.”
In an interview last week, Harvie did not say he supported a data center moratorium when HuffPost specifically asked about one. Instead, he said he supported a recent executive order by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) putting some restrictions on data center development.
“With electricity prices being what they are, and concerns about climate, I think it falls into the feeling people have that the society, the government, the economy is moving away from them,” Harvie told HuffPost. “You know, here’s another example of big businesses, Big Tech coming in and doing whatever they want and screwing over the little guy.”
In August of last year, Harvie joined Shapiro in celebrating Amazon’s announcement that it would build a massive data center in Falls Township. On social media, Harvie praised Shapiro for “cutting red tape, expediting the permitting process, and for working with all of us at the local, county, and state levels to strengthen our economy for years to come.”
Harvie supported a tax break for the larger site hosting the data center during a Bucks County Commissioners vote in December 2020. “We’re excited about the construction and the permanent jobs this will create,” Harvie said at the time, according to Levittownnow.com.
As his executive order shows, Shapiro has done a similar about-face on data centers as voter concern has grown. The ultra-popular moderate once welcomed the projects in the state as part of an AI-friendly approach to governance, but now the state will require them to conduct community outreach and meet certain energy requirements, among other restrictions.
Fitzpatrick’s campaign argued that Harvie’s past support for the projects makes his new attack hypocritical and quickly cut a digital ad on Thursday labeling Harvie Bucks County’s No. 1 fan of data centers.
“Bob Harvie is literally the sole reason why we have a massive data center in our own backyard in Bucks County,” Heather Roberts, a spokesperson for the Fitzpatrick campaign, wrote in an email. “Bob Harvie literally created this problem in our community – and he is now well aware of the massive albatross that this is around his neck.”
