How Brian Kemp became the champion of Georgia’s data center future

“This is a race we cannot afford to lose,” he told Gwinnett County business leaders this month.

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

That stance makes Kemp one of the most vocal defenders of a data center boom that has become one of the nation’s most volatile political divides, with prominent national Democrats and a growing number of Republicans campaigning against the projects ahead of the November midterms.

Voters have noticed. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in April found nearly 53% of likely Republican primary voters disapprove of a data center in their community. Among their Democratic counterparts, opposition topped 75%.

“I thought Kemp is paying better attention to the writing on the wall. Georgians hate it, across political parties, across socio-economic status,” said Amy Sharma, executive director of Science for Georgia, pointing to a recent study by her group. “And no one thinks the government is putting in enough protections for them. He lives here. He knows about the backlash. It’s just bananas to me.”

Credit: (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: (Ben Gray for the AJC)

The two-term Republican has saved some of his sharpest vitriol for politicians who want Georgia to slow their development, using the word “insane” to describe Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms’ call for a temporary halt on the projects.

But other governors have also expressed concerns.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who has enthusiastically courted high-tech investment, halted approvals for data centers this month until regulatory agencies can audit the projects.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential Democratic presidential hopeful who last year trumpeted Amazon’s $20 billion data center campus in his state, just imposed new requirements that effectively block new projects facing local pushback.

And New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in July became the first governor in the nation to enact a one-year moratorium on new mega-facilities in her state.

Kemp has taken the opposite tack. Alongside President Donald Trump at the White House in July, the governor promoted a deal that shields consumers from electricity costs in areas where tech giants are building data centers and cast the AI infrastructure buildout as a geopolitical imperative.

He sharpened that message this month, telling local business leaders that rampant misinformation has painted a more toxic picture of the industry.

“They’re going to help us economically. They’re going to help us from a national defense perspective,” he said. “And we’re not trying to force them where people don’t want them.”

That argument has become central to the Georgia business establishment’s strategy.

Georgia Chamber President Chris Clark, who recently launched a new outreach to recruit local leaders who want data centers, said he’s framing the question not around whether Georgia needs more digital infrastructure but how the state should accommodate it.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

“Our use and creation of data is growing exponentially every year. We will always need this infrastructure,” he said. “But how do we do it responsibly? How do we do it transparently? How do we do it the right way?”

For Kemp, the issue is also an extension of a recruitment strategy built around expanding local infrastructure, preserving incentives and giving local officials broad discretion over development.

“I’m not saying that a county or city needs to do a data center,” he said. “But they should be able to decide whether they want one or not. It doesn’t need to be the state telling them to do that.”

Few states have more at stake than Georgia. Metro Atlanta has transformed in just a few years into the nation’s second-largest data center market behind northern Virginia.

And developers are finding customers almost as quickly as they can build. On the same day OpenAI announced plans for a $20 billion complex in Effingham County, Google announced a billion-dollar expansion in LaGrange.

But the scale of the expansion is also generating significant backlash. Some proposed campuses require as much electricity as a small city, prompting Georgia Power to undertake one of the largest expansions in the utility’s history.

Some communities are pausing or restricting projects. Others are raising sharp questions about the environmental strain of developments that often consume enormous amounts of power and water while creating relatively few permanent jobs.

The price of the boom

Perhaps no issue better illustrates Kemp’s commitment than Georgia’s tax incentive.

The state exempts large-scale data centers and bulk computer equipment purchases from sales taxes, benefits that have cost the state more than $2.5 billion in 2026 alone, according to a state estimate. That tab is expected to rise to nearly $3 billion in 2027.

The Republican-controlled Legislature has repeatedly tried to rein in those perks, including a 2024 vote to pause the incentive for hyperscale projects for two years. The governor vetoed it, saying an abrupt change could undermine the industry.

This year, Republican state Sen. Matt Brass and his allies pushed again to phase out the exemption. Others pressed to ensure data centers shoulder the cost of new energy infrastructure.

Credit: (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: (Ben Gray for the AJC)

None became law, though the debate over new guardrails seems certain to resurface next year.

“I don’t think consumers and small businesses should be subsidizing companies like Meta and Google and Amazon,” said state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, a Rome Republican.

He added that he has a sunnier outlook on developers that pay their share of taxes and utility costs and use efficient water systems.

“I would welcome them to Georgia and my district.”

Dueling visions

The rift is spilling into the race for governor.

Bottoms began calling for a temporary statewide moratorium this spring, saying Georgia had “moved too fast” and needed time to study the impact of the rapid buildout.

She has emphasized that she isn’t proposing a permanent ban, saying at the Georgia Chamber’s Congressional Luncheon this month that some rural officials see data centers as a lifeline. But she said the state first needs better information.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

“We’ve got to separate fact from fiction, and we don’t have enough facts on data centers to make an informed decision on how we move forward,” she said. “We need a pause.”

Kemp has seized on that proposal, arguing that a statewide halt would scuttle investment even in communities eager for development.

He often points to a recent trip to Early County, where he said officials are clamoring for a data center to bring jobs and investment to the southwest Georgia community of 11,000 people.

Republican nominee Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive, is closer to Kemp’s camp.

Credit: Natrice Miller for the AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller for the AJC

Jackson has said his financial stake in a Texas data center gives him a better understanding of the debate, and frames the projects as an economic opportunity that can potentially help lower property taxes or pay for other priorities.

“As a business person,” Jackson said recently, “I just want to give them that option so that they know both sides of the street.”

But he has also stressed that local officials should have the final say.

“Every community needs to have control of whether they have a data center or not, full stop.”

Staff writer Zachary Hansen contributed to this report.