Democratic Party organizers are seemingly rallying behind Willie Nelson in the growing campaign against artificial intelligence data centers.
The 93-year-old country music star and lifelong Democrat has become a figurehead for the movement against AI data centers, which he previously blasted on social media, Axios reported. Jane Kleeb, president of left-wing environmental group Bold Alliance and Nebraska Democratic Party chairwoman, compared Nelson’s role in the wave of protests to that of the Star Wars character Yoda, according to Axios.
“The last thing we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting, data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter),” Nelson said in a July 28 Instagram post. “All of America deserves thoughtful stewardship that doesn’t steal farmland … and small family farmers’ livelihoods, and not data centers that only destroy the environment around them.”
“We always listen to our Yoda,” Kleeb said about Nelson, according to Axios.
Kleeb is a vocal advocate for data center reform, according to her February testimony to Nebraska lawmakers.
“Data centers are the essential digital infrastructure behind every online purchase, telehealth appointment, online news article, and digital classroom, not just Artificial Intelligence,” Dan Diorio, executive vice president of state policy and government affairs for the Data Center Coalition (DCC), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The Data Center Coalition will continue to work with residents, localities, and policymakers to ensure the sustainable use of water, energy, and other natural resources, while promoting the continued responsible development of this important 21st-century industry,” Diorio added.
The DCC cast the industry as an economic engine, citing 5.5 million jobs and $1.7 trillion in GDP nationally in 2024, Diorio told the DCNF. Data centers pay their full energy costs, Diorio said, pointing to research from E3 and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Shock Ink, Willie Nelson’s public relations firm, referred the DCNF to Nelson’s social media statement when asked to clarify his stance on data centers.
The Bold Alliance and the Nebraska Democratic Party each did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
“There is not a better way to be relevant that is as prevalent as data centers,” Kleeb said, E&E News reported. “After doing this work for 20 years, it is easier to mobilize communities to block something than it is to build something.”
Kleeb began her tenure as Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party in December 2016, according to the Nebraska Democratic Party biography page.
The Nebraska Democrat was a central organizer of rural opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, according to The New York Times. She persuaded conservative farmers and ranchers they would shoulder the risks of Canada’s energy ambitions.
Nelson similarly objected to the pipeline and held a 2014 concert in Nebraska to rally against it. “For 29 years, corporations have continued to take the land away from the small family farmers, and this is what we’re here to fight against,” Nelson said at the concert, according to Axios.
“I’ve been supporting Democrats all my life,” Nelson said on The View in Sept. 2018.
The data center industry, meanwhile, says it is working to address local backlash.
“We are in the process of honing in on how to better demonstrate our commitments to these principles for responsible development,” Diorio told Axios. He said the DCC is “catching up” to community concerns about data centers.
The DCC advocates for dozens of leading data center owners, operators and big tech companies that heavily use data centers, according to the organization’s website.
(DCNF)
