seattletimes.com · Danny Westneat · September 5, 2026
‘Radioactive’: How data centers are scrambling WA politics | The Seattle Times [Skip Ad](#skip-0) [Skip to content](#content) [Skip Ad](#skip-1) [](https://www.seattletimes.com) [Local Politics](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/) [Local Politics](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/) * [Local News](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/) * [Local Politics](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/) * [Nation & World](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/) * [Nation & World Politics](https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/) # ‘Radioactive’: How data centers are scrambling WA politics Sep. 5, 2026 at 6:00 am Updated Sep. 5, 2026 at 6:00 am Listen to article Make us a preferred source ** ** **  ** Data centers have sprouted as far as the eye can see in Quincy, in Central Washington. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times) [Skip Ad](#skip-2) [](https://www.seattletimes.com/author/danny-westneat) By [Danny Westneat](https://www.seattletimes.com/author/danny-westneat/) [**](https://www.facebook.com/STwestneat) Seattle Times columnist When rookie politician John Duresky decided to run for Congress, the day after being “DOGE’d” out of the federal workforce at Hanford last year, he built a campaign around typical planks like jobs, healthcare and protecting Social Security. But he finds himself constantly being asked about something else entirely. “I will tell you, having talked to the voters, that data centers are radioactive right now,” he said in a [recent video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcG9vcyEiKN), standing in a sagebrush landscape on the outskirts of West Richland, in Central Washington. Duresky is the Democrat in the red 4th Congressional District — so he’s a longshot. But data centers have exploded as an unexpected issue that is scrambling politics in 2026. “I’m really struggling with this issue,” Duresky told me. “People are strongly against them right now, but at the same time, parts of my coalition are very pro-data center, such as the labor unions. They want the jobs.” The sagebrush he was standing in, not far from his house, fronts a roughly 7,000-acre farming area called the Lewis and Clark Ranch. This past week, it was [announced](https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/business/article317102851.html) that a Texas-based real estate firm had paid $264 million for about 1,000 acres of it, to develop a data center. Advertising [Skip Ad](#skip-3) [Skip Ad](#skip-4) [Skip Ad](#skip-5) No plans have been made public yet. But if the whole plot is used for that purpose, it could be the mother of all data centers in this state. Currently, the [largest approved data center in the U.S.](https://cleanview.co/data-centers/us) is the [Delta Gigasite](https://www.creekstone.energy/delta) in Utah, with 20 million square feet of AI server facilities planned, covering 1,100 acres. As for West Richland, groups already are forming to try to block the project. “Any council member who votes to approve data center development in West Richland will face an organized, immediate and sustained effort to remove them from office,” said a posting on the Tri-Cities Data Center Watch Facebook page. That may sound like a hollow threat, but it’s happened elsewhere. In one Missouri town, the city council greenlighted a $6 billion hyperscale data center, and then just two weeks later all four incumbents who were up for reelection were [tossed out by voters](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/13/missouri-city-council-data-center-00867259). “Right now is a bad time to want to be building a data center,” Duresky said. As one land-use attorney [told](https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/09/02/how-data-centres-became-one-of-americas-hottest-political-issues) The Economist magazine this week: “The level of emotion associated with these projects is one that I have not experienced.” Advertising [Skip Ad](#skip-6) Why are people so emotional? For starters, the projects can be huge. They tend to supplant farmland, which pits old rural values against new tech. They consume water for cooling along with tons of energy. The annual electricity use by Washington state data centers soared 37% just between 2021 and 2024, [according to](https://powering-intelligence.epri.com/dashboard/) the Electric Power Research Institute. Data centers are the backbone of AI, a largely unregulated and disruptive force. The centers have become humming symbols of tech influence — or as Duresky put it, projects to “make a bunch of oligarchs richer.” There’s also a sense that the fix is in. Washington state has been in the business of subsidizing data centers, through tax breaks. Last year, the state excused $196 million in sales and use taxes on data center projects — $131 million of which went to one company, Microsoft, [state records show](https://secure.dor.wa.gov/gteunauth/?Link=IncRpt). This year, due to backlash, lawmakers [trimmed that tax break program](https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=6231&Initiative=false&Year=2025&utm). But this isn’t solely big wealth versus the people. The pro-data center push Duresky feels from labor unions is real. The projects bring hundreds of construction jobs, plus a lesser number of permanent gigs to service the computer farms. Washington has a governor-appointed [Data Center Workgroup](https://dor.wa.gov/about/data-center-workgroup) to come up with policies on the hot-button issue. They looked at the economic impact of data centers on one Central Washington town, Quincy, population 8,500. It’s been dramatic. Before the first Microsoft data project opening there in 2006, the top 10 landowners, mostly agricultural, paid $4.2 million combined in property taxes. Now, the top 10, dominated by data centers, pay $54.3 million — a more than 1,000% increase in revenue. Advertising [Skip Ad](#skip-7) [Skip Ad](#skip-8) [Skip Ad](#skip-9) “While the City had sidewalks on approximately 5% of its streets (in 2006), 80% of the city’s streets now have sidewalks. 95% of streets are now paved,” the [report noted](https://dor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2025-12/2025DataCntrWrkgrpPrelimReport.pdf). Quincy’s also got a new high school, new hospital, new city hall, new fire station and so on. [Some say](https://www.cascadepbs.org/the-newsfeed-2/2026/08/washington-state-grapples-with-the-ai-data-center-boom/) the costs can be intangible, such as the town losing its farming soul. President Donald Trump weighed in on this debate last week with his usual subtlety, by saying that towns that don’t embrace the “Golden Goose” of new data centers are filled with losers who will “end up being backwards and poor.” ## Most Read Local Stories * [Light rail train breaks down near Husky Stadium after Apple Cup ](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/light-rail-train-breaks-down-near-husky-stadium-after-apple-cup/) * [2 dead, 3 hurt in Belltown shootings near raucous street takeover ** WATCH](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/two-people-killed-in-belltown-shootings/) * [It’s happening again: PNW’s largest spider is seeking love inside people’s homes ** VIEW](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/its-happening-again-pnws-largest-spider-is-seeking-love-inside-peoples-homes/) * [Boeing plane in fatal Miami crash made Amazon debut at Seattle Seafair ](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/boeing-plane-in-fatal-miami-crash-made-amazon-debut-at-seattle-seafair/) * [Lummi Nation says trenches desecrated burial grounds at Point Roberts ](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/lummi-nation-says-trenches-desecrated-burial-grounds-at-point-roberts/) I