Outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) on Wednesday cautioned Georgians against embracing Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms, warning her position on data centers threatens the state’s economy.Kemp weighed in on the heated governor’s race, which will feature Bottoms against either Lt. Gov. Burt Jones or businessman Rick Jackson on the Republican side in November, during an interview with Bloomberg Television. The term-limited governor expressed concern about Bottoms’ proposal to impose a moratorium on data center development if she wins the election, arguing that Georgia has the energy capacity it needs to grow responsibly, without raising electricity rates for residents.“That’s just an insane position to take, because you know, I was down in Early County, Georgia, it’s one of the poorest counties in the United States of America, and they, as soon as I got out of the car, were coming to me, going, ‘Please help us with our data center, we want to build a data center here,’” he said. “‘We know that will provide good-paying jobs for our community,’ because they just had a sawmill shut down, and they know that it’ll be good for helping them reduce property taxes.
Kemp said he is against putting data centers everywhere, explaining he is not for “pushing them in communities where the local governments and the people don’t want it.”
