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One of the biggest upsets from Democratic primary elections this month was Donavan McKinney's defeat of two-term Congressmember Shri Thanedar in the House primary to represent parts of Detroit and Wayne County in Michigan's 13th District. McKinney, a democratic socialist state lawmaker, won on a platform to get corporate money out of politics, support Medicare for All and end military aid to Israel, among other issues. Like many other insurgent Democrats running for office, he has also proposed strict limits on artificial intelligence data centers. He took no corporate PAC money, and his campaign was supported by the Justice Democrats, Working Families Party, Democratic Socialists of America and major labor unions.
"We built the biggest and baddest coalition in the country," says McKinney of his win. "People have come together and realized that our district deserves better."
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We speak with Tennessee lawmaker Justin J. Pearson, who just won the Democratic primary to represent part of Memphis in the state's 9th Congressional District. Pearson's campaign focused in part on opposing large artificial intelligence data centers, particularly Elon Musk's Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, which are in the Memphis area.
"People don't want toxic data centers polluting the air that they breathe," says Pearson. "It's not a fight of right versus left; it's a fight of those who are at the top and the rest of us."
Pearson is a longtime environmental justice organizer and advocate who first gained national prominence three years ago, when he was expelled from Tennessee's House of Representatives for protesting Republicans' inaction on gun violence. He is now running in a congressional district that was recently gerrymandered to dilute Black voting power in the state following a Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act. His opponent in November is Republican state Senator Brent Taylor, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump.
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Some lawmakers and their families have traded millions of dollars worth of stocks since the start of this term.
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A lawsuit filed this week alleges that the product is unconstitutional, and other experts warn it could violate securities laws.
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Kansas state Senator Cindy Holscher won Tuesday's primary race to become the Democratic nominee in the state's gubernatorial race, facing Republican Ty Masterson in November. Holscher clinched the nomination over fellow state lawmaker Ethan Corson, who was backed by the outgoing Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. Holscher's victory is seen as another resounding defeat for establishment Democrats in Kansas and nationwide. The fight over data centers became a defining issue in the Kansas race.
"We see [data centers] suck up the resources in terms of water. We see energy usage causing utility bills to skyrocket. So, certainly not things that you want to have happen during an affordability crisis," Holscher tells Democracy Now!
Holscher also celebrates the defeat of a ballot measure to change how state Supreme Court justices are elected, which she calls a "backdoor attempt" to attack abortion rights, voting access and public education.
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