AI data centers erupt as major battleground in Florida governor’s race

The three alarms of the AI boom

Big picture view:

TAMPA, Fla. - The nationwide boom in artificial intelligence is raising three distinct levels of concern among policymakers and the public:

1. Existential risk: Warnings from tech leaders that advanced AI could eventually escape human control.
2. Workforce disruption: The potential for rapid automation to eliminate millions of traditional jobs.
3. Physical infrastructure demands: The immediate environmental, energy and land-use impacts of industrial-scale data centers.

While the first two alarms involve national and global debates, the third alarm has arrived directly in Florida, making the state's election a key factor in where these massive facilities go—or don't go.

Loudoun County’s $1.2 billion trade-off

The backstory:

To examine what a data center boom looks like on the ground, Democratic candidate David Jolly traveled to Loudoun County, Virginia—commonly known as "Data Center Alley."

While Loudoun County has been a tech hub since the late 1990s, rapid expansion over the past decade has steadily converted open land and wooded parcels near residential neighborhoods into industrial campuses. Today, Loudoun County hosts roughly 230 existing data center buildings, with another 100 facilities in the pipeline.

The Virginia experience highlights the trade-offs facing local communities:

• Community strain: Residents express concerns about noise and air pollution, industrial views replacing natural woods, and concerns over declining property values.
• Massive tax revenue: Loudoun County Economic Development Director Buddy Rizer notes that data centers deliver approximately $1.2 billion in annual local tax revenue—an asset class unmatched by any other industry. That tax base funds local public schools, roads, and community projects, including a local recreation center featuring pools, weightlifting rooms and amenities built largely from data center revenue.

Whether Florida should embrace Virginia's high-revenue, high-density model or block it at the state line, has become a core issue between the candidates.

Jolly’s plan: A statewide pause, environmental review, and potential ban

Democrat David Jolly argues that the state must step in to protect communities, public health, and natural resources before data centers proliferate across Florida.

Jolly proposes a one-year statewide moratorium on new data center construction to study their impacts on Florida's air, water systems, energy grid, real estate values, and overall economy.

Key pillars of Jolly's position include:

• State jurisdiction & permanent ban potential: Jolly asserts that the state has a clear duty to intervene on environmental and health grounds. If research shows severe negative impacts, Jolly says he would extend the temporary moratorium into a permanent statewide ban.
• Economic skepticism: While acknowledging short-term construction jobs, Jolly questions the long-term economic value of data centers relative to their resource consumption, raising concerns about the "functional obsolescence" of these massive structures 5 to 10 years down the road.
• Quality of life and AI anxieties: Beyond noise pollution and real estate devaluation, Jolly notes that data centers have become a physical symbol of broader public anxieties regarding job loss, wage disruption, privacy, and security.
• Clean energy contrast: Jolly strongly supports expanding solar, wind, and renewable technologies, stating that clean energy can lower utility bills, create jobs, and protect Florida's natural environment.

Donalds’ plan: Local control, ratepayer safeguards

Republican Byron Donalds strongly opposes a statewide pause, arguing that banning or stalling data center construction sends a dangerous signal to the business community that Florida is closed to capital investment.

Donalds' strategy relies on local government authority and legislative ratepayer protections:

• A departure on local preemption: In recent years, Florida's Republican-led state government has preempted local municipalities on a range of issues. However, on data centers, Donalds explicitly opposes state preemption, arguing that cities and counties should retain full authority to decide whether a facility belongs in their community.
• Current ratepayer protection law & caveats: Donalds points to current state law—enacted through legislation sponsored by his running mate, Representative Bryan Avila—which requires large data centers to pay their full energy and water infrastructure costs, so traditional utility bills do not increase. However, that law applies specifically to Florida's four major investor-owned utilities (leaving municipal utilities and rural electric co-ops exempt) and relies on the Public Service Commission (PSC) for enforcement.
• Transparency vs. past legislation: Donalds calls for full transparency for local data center proposals, stating there should be "no more NDAs" (non-disclosure agreements). Earlier legislative efforts sponsored by Avila sought to exempt data center plans from public records laws, but that transparency exemption failed to pass. Donalds emphasizes the consumer-protection provisions that did become law.
• Replacing solar arrays with nuclear reactors: Skeptical of solar power—which he argues takes large tracts of land out of productive use for relatively low power output—Donalds states he is "dovish on solar and wind power." Instead, Donalds proposes placing four data centers on the footprint of a single solar array and powering them with an SMR (Small Modular Reactor)—a small nuclear fission reactor. Any excess electricity generated by the SMR would be fed back into the public power grid.
• Protecting pristine land and tourism: Donalds argues Florida has available interior land to accommodate high-tech development without building next to residential homes or harming core tourism hubs like Disney, Universal, and state beaches.

What they're saying:

The candidates offer opposing perspectives on economic growth, energy policy, and the role of state government:

David Jolly on the risks to local communities and property values:

"There are still questions around public health. The noise pollution is exceedingly real. The destabilization of communities, the devaluation of real estate. And I think it also becomes a visual symbol of the greater anxieties about artificial intelligence, the loss of jobs, the disruption of wages."

Byron Donalds on why he opposes Jolly's proposed statewide moratorium:

"That's a signal to the business community that this is not a place to invest capital. This is not a place to invest in businesses... utility rates in our state will not go up for ratepayers, and we require water permits for these centers so that we protect Florida's aquifers."

Byron Donalds on replacing solar farms with nuclear-powered data centers:

"Solar arrays concern me because you take a lot of land out of production for a power output that does not yield, in my view, the highest and best use of the parcel. I would rather build a data center—or probably four data centers—in one of these solar arrays and put an SMR underneath it... whatever power is not being used off the SMR can actually be put on grid for other uses."

Buddy Rizer, Loudoun County, VA Economic Development Executive Director, on data center tax revenue:

"There is no other asset class that will deliver tax revenue in the same way that data centers do."

What's next:

The debate over AI data centers highlights fundamental differences in how both candidates approach local regulation, state energy policy, and economic development.

In upcoming segments of Money, Power & Politics, Political Editor Craig Patrick will take an in-depth look at where David Jolly and Byron Donalds stand on other major issues facing Floridians, including property insurance reform, health care costs, education, and the state's broader economic outlook.

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