State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the Republican Party’s endorsed challenger to Gov. Josh Shapiro in this year’s election, suggested Monday that Pennsylvania’s rural communities would be good locations for new data centers built to power artificial intelligence technologies.
“Forty-eight of our 67 counties in Pennsylvania are rural, so there are a lot of areas where you can put data centers that I think communities would welcome,” Garrity, 61, told a room full of reporters, think tank organizers and lobbyists in Harrisburg.
“But you have to engage with them,” she continued, referencing voters. “You have to talk to them. You can’t just jam it down their throats.”
Her answer came in response to a question, submitted during the Pennsylvania Press Club’s January luncheon, about how policymakers should address the widespread mistrust among voters toward data centers and AI.
An Emerson College poll last month found roughly 79% of Pennsylvanians think AI poses at least a “moderate threat” to humanity. Nearly half predicted that the technology would negatively impact the economy and the environment.
On data centers, Emerson researchers found voters were nearly evenly split: 38% of respondents said they support data centers being built in the commonwealth, while 35% opposed it and 27% were either neutral or had no opinion.
A majority of respondents (71%) said they were concerned about the amount of electricity that data centers draw from the grid.
Northeast grid operator PJM predicts nearly 32 gigawatts more electricity generation will be needed in Pennsylvania by 2030. All but 2 gigawatts of that growth in demand would be attributed to new data centers.
Consumer advocates have warned state lawmakers that without their interference, the majority of that cost could fall onto taxpayers — not the companies that own and run data centers.
Garrity’s stance does little to separate her from Shapiro, who has embraced many aspects of the boom in data centers and AI-use.
For example, the governor’s administration has backed the restart of the former Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear reactor to power Microsoft-owned data centers for the next 20 years. That reactor is separate from the infamous Unit 2 reactor, which partially melted down in 1979.
Cooperating with ICE
Garrity told the audience that if she is elected governor, Pennsylvania would fully cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as President Donald Trump’s administration steps up enforcement of immigration laws.
“The most important thing that you can do as governor is make sure you have safe communities and make sure that people are safe,” Garrity said. “It takes a cooperative effort — every effort of law enforcement.”
Her comments come as protests have broken out nationwide against ICE in response to a federal agent’s killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last week. Two protesters were also shot by federal agents in Portland, Oregon.
“You can see how states that cooperate, the results are far different than states that have not been cooperative,” Garrity said.
Shapiro has called for an investigation into the killing of Good and told MS NOW that his administration has gone through “table top exercises” with state agencies on how to interact with ICE officials.
“We don’t want law enforcement that is sent here without a coordinated effort into our communities,” Shapiro said. “We want more law enforcement in our communities in a coordinated way — coordinated between law enforcement at every level and coordinated with our communities.”
State of the campaign
Shapiro, 52, officially launched his reelection bid last week and, according to his campaign, began the new year with about $30 million for his reelection effort.
Meanwhile, Garrity’s campaign announced last week that she had raised nearly $1.5 million since launching her campaign in August.
Garrity, 61, was endorsed early by the Pennsylvania Republican Party — a decision that helped clear the field for her to focus on campaigning against Shapiro, who had defeated his previous opponent in the 2022 election by about 15 percentage points. She’s the heavy favorite to win the GOP nomination in the May 19 primary.
Since her August campaign launch video, Garrity has not held back from deep criticisms of Shapiro.
She often says the governor is more focused on his rumored White House bid than he is on governing the commonwealth, jabbing at him for frequently appearing on national talk shows. Her speech on Monday included many such comments.
Garrity declined to provide any details on who she hoped would run as lieutenant governor.