A North Carolina congressional primary on Tuesday is an early test of datacenter politics – a fight increasingly shaping elections nationwide.

In the Durham-area fourth district, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee is seeking her third term against progressive challenger Nida Allam, a Durham county commissioner she defeated in 2022.

The heated rematch comes against the backdrop of a major datacenter battle in the district. Allam has come out staunchly against a massive new proposed facility, and is supporting a federal datacenter moratorium. Foushee, meanwhile, said she does not personally support the new development, but that datacenter decisions should be left to local leaders, not federal ones.

Until mid-February, Allam’s campaign donations dwarfed Foushee’s, thanks to Pacs such as Justice Democrats and gun control activist David Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve. In the last two weeks, that picture has changed dramatically as major Pacs have raced to back the incumbent.

Chief among them is Jobs and Democracy, a Super Pac whose sole disclosed donor is Anthropic, the AI firm behind Claude. The group has spent about $1.6m on Foushee’s re-election campaign since February 21.

Though Anthropic has no known links to the local datacenter proposal, opposition to it has left some local residents especially skeptical of all political funding tied to big tech.

Anthropic brands itself as safety-focused, making headlines in recent days for refusing the Pentagon’s demand for unfettered use of its products, though its tools have since reportedly been used in strikes on Iran. The company has backed some state AI safeguards and last year helped defeat a federal ban on state AI regulations.

Part of the broader network Public First Action, the Jobs and Democracy Super Pac “was created to fight back and make sure leaders who have been on the front lines of protecting kids, families, workers, and our national security from the risks of unregulated AI get elected”, spokesperson Anthony Rivera-Rodriguez wrote in an email.

The idea, however, that a big tech-backed group would support candidates who will regulate AI to the necessary degree is “laughable”, according to Allam.

“That would be like if I allowed my two kids to decide and be the dictators of their own bedtime,” she said in an interview with the Guardian.

Hundreds signed an open letter urging candidates to oppose the datacenter proposal in the fourth district and reject big-tech Pac money.

Allam, who agreed to the terms of the letter, said: “I wear it as a badge of honor that [big tech] sees me as a threat.”

But when a high school student asked Foushee if she would accept funding from the AI sector last month, she said: “I have not made any pledge.”

In an email, Foushee said “I do not coordinate with Super Pacs in any way” and that she will push for datacenter regulations in Congress.

“I have long been fighting to hold oligarchs and large corporations accountable in Congress,” she said. “Nothing will ever change that.

A datacenter showdown

Foushee’s Anthropic-tied funding has drawn sharp criticism from constituents opposing Maryland-based Natelli Investments’ plan to build a sprawling 190-acre datacenter near Apex, 20 miles southwest of Raleigh.

The developer has not said which companies will use the facility.

The proposal has sparked pushback over energy and water use and potential increases in toxic and planet-warming emissions. Some 5,000 people have signed a petition opposing it.

“Between the electricity, the water issues, air quality, health, noise pollution,” said Michelle O’Connor, who lives roughly one and a half miles from the proposal and has a health sciences PhD, “I have yet to find a solid reason why this is good for Apex.”

The two Democratic candidates have responded to the fight differently. Foushee, endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, North Carolina governor Josh Stein, and the League of Conservation Voters, says she though she does not personally favor the Apex proposal, local leaders should be in charge.

“I share many of the same concerns as my constituents. I believe we need to protect the local environment and our community’s electrical costs,” she told the Guardian. “I trust the local leaders to make the right choice and listen to our community, and I do not want to be a thorn in their side.”

But Allam argues federal leaders must slow AI’s rapid expansion. A former state Democratic party leader and 2016 Bernie Sanders staffer endorsed by the youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats, she has rallied alongside residents against the Apex proposal. When Chatham county, also in the fourth district, passed its own datacenter moratorium earlier this month, Allam hailed the policy as “great news”.

Alongside Sanders, she is calling for a 10-year national moratorium on datacenters. Such a pause would allow lawmakers could develop requirements for facilities to recycle their own water and pay for dedicated clean energy supplies such as solar, preventing local bill increases, resource depletion, and climate impacts.

“We need to implement these rules or it’s going to be our working-class neighbors that suffer the most,” she said.

Jobs and Democracy told the Guardian it backs leaders who “champion voter interests over big tech”. Spokesperson Anthony Rivera-Rodriguez said Foushee has been “a voice against the datacenter proposal in her district”, consistent with the group’s support for leaders who stand up to unregulated AI.

The Super Pac and Foushee argue that states and localities should decide whether to approve datacenters instead of federal lawmakers. Foushee said that a national moratorium could create unintended consequences – for example, preventing communities from building hospitals that rely on data infrastructure.

Though local leaders should be in charge, the representative said she will “push for regulations regarding datacenters including first-of-its-kind policies surrounding land-use to hold large corporations accountable for their effects on local costs and the environment as Democrats retake the majority”.

Allam said Foushee’s position “passes the buck” to state leaders, who may be constrained by federal law from enacting certain protections. Stronger federal leadership is needed, she said.

In December, Foushee was appointed to co-chair a new bipartisan AI commission. Jobs and Democracy PAC has also funded ads supporting one of the other two co-chairs of the commission, New Jersey representative Josh Gottheimer.

On the body, Foushee last week raised concerns about reports that Anthropic had stepped back from key safety commitments around military use amid pressure from Trump officials – though she called for the administration, not the company, to change its behavior. She has also called for tech companies to detail how AI factored into recent layoffs, and flagged the sector’s environmental footprint.

“Congress needs to establish clear regulations to ensure datacenters do not hurt our environment,” she said.

Critics say accepting tech-linked Super Pac funding undercuts that message.

“She can’t have our best interests in mind when she’s relying on their money to stay in office,” said Usamah Andrabi, Justice Democrats’ communications director.

Victoria Plant, a local Sunrise Movement organizer, said Foushee has “offered no real regulations to stop unchecked expansion”.

During the 2022 cycle, Foushee also faced criticism for accepting funding from the pro-Israel lobby and a Super Pac linked to disgraced cryptocurrency financier Sam Bankman-Fried, who was later convicted of fraud. Foushee in 2022 said she donated her Bankman‑Fried–linked contribution to a non‑profit, and this year said she will not accept further donations from the pro-Israel lobby.

Money in politics

The Apex datacenter reflects broader concerns about AI’s rapid expansion, Allam said. At peak demand, the project could consume up to 1m gallons of water a day – roughly one-fifth of the town’s average daily use, according to town officials. Natelli has said the project will not affect potable water and says the facility will comply with local codes and ordinances.

It would also require about 300 megawatts of electricity – roughly three times the annual consumption of Apex and nearby New Hill combined, said Bill Dam, a retired environmental scientist who lives two miles from the site.

“It’s not in our interests to see this project go through,” he said.

The facility would draw power from a nearby nuclear plant and rely on 100 diesel generators for backup. If used frequently to stabilize the grid during high demand, those generators will produce toxic and planet-warming emissions, Dam warned.

And though the developer says the project should not impact energy rates, datacenters have been linked to increased prices in North Carolina, Allam said.

Foushee said she, too, is worried about “local water usage, rising electrical costs, and pollution” from the Apex proposal.

Allam said residents are right to be skeptical that she will act on those beliefs.

“You can’t have the very industry that you’re trying to regulate be bankrolling you, and expect residents to believe that you are going to have independent thought,” she said.

She said she is under no illusion that lawmakers can or should stop AI’s expansion outright. “I believe that the United States should be a leader in the sphere of AI,” she said. ”But we need to do it in a way that actually benefits communities.”