Nancy Mace

Mace also pledged to make data centers supply their own electricity to prevent Americans from shouldering rising costs associated with the megaprojects. “The rules are simple: data centers pay their own way or they do not come here,” she wrote in a post on X.

The Republican’s call represents the latest sign that opposition to data centers is becoming a point of convergence for lawmakers in both political parties. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill in March that would enact a nationwide moratorium on the AI infrastructure until certain safety measures are put in place.

Mace’s office told POLITICO she does not have any immediate plans to endorse a nationwide freeze on data center construction.

Her stance follows President Donald Trump’s “ratepayer protection pledge,” a set of voluntary agreements struck in March with major tech companies including Amazon, Google and OpenAI aimed at easing concerns over electricity price hikes tied to the rapid expansion of AI data centers. Even so, the White House has largely taken a laissez-faire approach to AI regulation and pushed to cut red tape slowing the infrastructure build-out needed to support the technology.

It is yet another example of the growing divide within the GOP on data centers as lawmakers respond to public concerns about rising energy costs. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a bipartisan bill in February that would bar data centers from raising energy costs for Americans.

Residents’ discontent over data centers is beginning to emerge as a politically salient issue at the ballot box, posing a concern for Mace, who is currently running to become governor of South Carolina.

Efforts to temporarily halt construction of data centers have progressed in several state legislatures — including Mace’s own — amid public outcry over rising energy costs associated with the AI hubs. State lawmakers in South Carolina introduced a measure last month that would pause construction in the state until lawmakers establish new guardrails on the infrastructure.

While similar measures have popped up in at least 12 other states, most have stalled or been opposed.

Maine was poised to be the first state to approve a statewide data center moratorium, with legislators advancing a measure that would temporarily pause construction of data centers larger than 20 megawatts. But the bill was subsequently vetoed by Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills since it failed to include an exemption for a data center project in Jay, a southern town in the state that has faced economic hardship.