Apparently deciding he wasn’t polling low enough, Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Paxton has come out strongly in favor of more data center development.
The breakneck expansion of data centers is disproportionately affecting Republicans in rural Texas, drawing a backlash among conservative Texas voters. What’s more, the New York Times recently described opposition to the massive computing centers as “the most bipartisan issue since beer.”
Nonetheless, Paxton — who trails Democratic opponent James Talarico by as many as five points in recent polling — said Monday that there’s “plenty of open space in Texas that we can put data centers.”
Paxton made the comments during an interview with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, during which he said further data center development will help the United States compete with China.
“This is a yes with conditions,” Paxton told council president Javier Palomarez. “It can’t be a no, because we won’t survive that. China will have a huge advantage over us in artificial intelligence, and they will use that to dominate us.”
Despite the state’s mounting bipartisan opposition to the centers, which use immense amounts of water and power, Paxton hasn’t talked much on the campaign trail about the subject.
Last month, he released a plan to “minimize the negative impacts” of data centers in Texas. However, that proposal primarily consisted of preventing the use of China-made technology in the facilities and supporting Gov. Greg Abbott’s proposed restrictions on their development.
The restrictions Paxton now supports include a repeal of sales tax exemptions for the industry, even though Paxton, as a freshman state senator in 2013, voted for the data center sales tax exemption that helped fuel their development boom in the state.
New figures from the Texas Comptroller’s Office project the exemption will cost Texas $3.2 billion in revenue over the next two years.
“This plan will ensure that happens while putting Texas first, protecting our culture and land, and safeguarding our families and communities,” Paxton said in a statement. “My plan will also work to ensure that data centers are not utilized to power AI platforms that endanger our children.”
Paxton also supports the DATA Act, a bill by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, that would let data centers build off-grid power systems, such as “behind-the-meter” gas-fired power plants. Such plants can produce substantially more pollution and consume more water than the data centers they power, research shows.
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