In his first campaign ad, Fitzpatrick’s democratic challenger Bob Harvie calls for data center moratorium

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Democratic congressional candidate Bob Harvie once supported the construction of the hyper-scale Amazon data center in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. But in a new ad released by his campaign Thursday, Harvie aims to draw a sharp distinction between him and his Republican opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.

“I’m Bob Harvie, I approve this message because I don’t want more data centers, I want a moratorium. Big Tech owns enough, they shouldn’t own our congressman too,” says Harvie in the ad.

The first congressional district includes all of Bucks County where construction of Amazon’s 600 megawatt data center at the 250-acre campus on a former U.S. Steel plant has faced significant opposition from residents worried about air pollution, rising electricity rates and water usage.

But as opposition to data centers rise, Democratic and Republican candidates nationwide are taking stronger positions. NPR recently analyzed ad spending data that showed since January, more than $45 million spent by campaigns and outside groups in House, Senate and gubernatorial races mention data centers.

A recently released memo by the Democratic House Majority Political Action Committee encourages candidates facing incumbents to talk about their opponents’ votes for President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Budget Bill,” which included tax breaks for tech companies. The memo refers to data centers as “the most notable and unforeseen part of the conversation.”

In the ad, Harvie says: “Big Tech is taking over our lives. And they want more. Grabbing our land, water, electricity and sticking us with the bill. Tech got Brian Fitzpatrick, too. After taking their money, he voted for billions in data center tax breaks, and made it impossible for communities like ours to stop new sites.”

Fitzpatrick, who has expressed strong support for the Amazon data center, has held the seat in the critical swing district for five terms. While he hasn’t called for a moratorium, he supports legislation to require more transparency for proposed data centers and to ensure ratepayers don’t foot the bill for any associated infrastructure upgrades.

Fitzpatrick’s campaign spokeswoman Heather Roberts said in an email that “Bob Harvie is literally the sole reason why we have a massive data center in our own backyard in Bucks County,” pointing to his past support.

“Bob Harvie literally created this problem in our community — and he is now well aware of the massive albatross that this is around his neck. Hence, his latest lie in this ad. Our community will soon learn all about Bob Harvie’s role in bringing this massive data center to Bucks County,” Roberts said.