A few months ago, I wrote a memo to the Message Box Pro community urging anyone and everyone to start talking about data centers in their campaigns. At the time, I argued:
Most Democrats are not yet talking about data centers — or AI more broadly — and that's a mistake. This is the rare issue where the politics, the policy, and the populist energy all point in the same direction. Voters are angry about their utility bills. They distrust the companies driving the increases. They want someone to fight for them. And the Trump administration is conspicuously on the wrong side.
The candidates who lean in on this fall will benefit. The ones who hope someone else handles it will get rolled by it.
Since then, every Democrat — and even some Republicans — has started aggressively opposing data centers. While I'd love to claim credit, it's probably not entirely connected to my memo. People got there on their own. But if you were a member of the Message Box Pro community, you had a head start.
The political firmament has shifted as data centers have become a centerpiece of the political conversation. This memo contains updated guidance for how to talk about them.
1. Examples of Good Messaging
Because I host a weekly show on Crooked Media's YouTube channel that analyzes political ads and videos, I pay a lot of attention to the ad traffic in races across the country.
The airwaves are filled with data center ads, mostly, but not entirely, by Democrats. I wanted to pull a couple of good examples. Even if you're not running ads in your race (or aren't up for election), these examples show why the issue lends itself to potentially viral social videos. And even absent that, the way these politicians talk about data centers can guide your messaging.
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