As data centers become one of the main issues voters are honing in on ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, lawmakers from both parties are scrambling to redefine their previous positions and pin their opposition as the pro-data center candidate.
US Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh), who is running for reelection against former firefighter Bob Brooks (D) in the Lehigh Valley, is among those reversing their views on data centers.
Last week, Mackenzie’s campaign posted a graphic promising to make data centers “pay their fair share.”
Meet the candidates: Ryan Mackenzie and Bob Brooks face off in PA-07
However, while serving in the state legislature, Mackenzie voted for a sales tax exemption that gave data centers tax breaks on some of the biggest costs associated with constructing and maintaining the facilities. The following year, he voted to extend the 6% sales tax exemption for up to 25 years.
According to Spotlight PA, the commonwealth is expected to lose close to $2 billion in sales tax revenue from this industry handout by 2031. House lawmakers voted in June to repeal that tax break in a 197-5 vote. The bill is currently sitting in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Mackenzie’s legislative account recently published a video of him speaking on the US House floor in support of giving control of data center development to local authorities.
“ Large energy consumers who create the demand for new energy infrastructure should pay their fair share of the cost. We can maintain local control of development activities while also protecting existing ratepayers, and that is exactly what this legislation does,” Mackenzie said in support of the Ratepayer Protection Act.
But last year, he voted for early versions of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which included a 10-year moratorium preventing state and local municipalities from regulating the construction and operation of AI data centers.
The US Senate stripped the AI moratorium out of the bill by a 99-1 vote after 40 attorney generals from across the country signed a letter in opposition to it.
Mackenzie’s post also accused Brooks of flip-flopping on data center regulations, taking money from data center backers, and profiting off of tech and artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, without pointing to any specifics or providing evidence.
Brooks and his wife do own stocks in some tech companies that operate data centers, such as Amazon, but Brooks has praised Gov. Josh Shapiro for signing an executive order curbing data center development and supports local authorities having control over data center development, according to his campaign website.
A spokesperson for Mackenzie’s campaign declined to comment about the lawmaker’s previous record on data centers, and instead highlighted his opponent’s previous support.
“When the labor unions funding his campaign and the Governor were 100% behind fast-tracking data centers, so was Bob Brooks. When it hurt him politically, Brooks flip-flopped and put his self-interests above all else like he always does,” Andres Weller, a Mackenzie spokesperson, said in a statement.
