In a shift, Bob Harvie calls for data center moratorium in new TV ad in race against Brian Fitzpatrick

Democrat Bob Harvie released his first general election TV ad Thursday morning, calling for a moratorium on artificial intelligence data center development and attacking U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Bucks) for his stance on the issue.

“I don’t want any more data centers. I want a moratorium. Big tech owns enough; they shouldn’t own our congressman, too,” Harvie says in the 30-second ad.

The ad marks the first time the congressional candidate and Bucks County commissioner has called for a moratorium and signifies a shift in his position.

Previously, in an interview with The Inquirer last week and on his website, Harvie had called only for strict regulations on development. To focus his first major television ad on the topic shows how the projects are becoming a top issue for voters in Bucks County’s swingy 1st Congressional District amid a national backlash against data centers.

As residents across the state protest proposed data centers in their communities, political candidates and elected officials have been taking — and sometimes changing — their positions. In August, Gov. Josh Shapiro shifted from his original stance and signed a sweeping executive order to increase restrictions on data center development.

In Bucks County, both Harvie and Fitzpatrick have to grapple with the development of an Amazon data center in Falls Township, which is nearing completion.

Harvie, who lives just miles from the project, voted in December 2020 to approve a county tax break for NorthPoint Development, the property owner of the Falls Township site.

Last year, Harvie celebrated Amazon’s investment in the data center and Fitzpatrick called it “one of the most transformative investments Bucks County has seen in decades.” More recently, they both supported Shapiro’s executive order.

In Harvie’s television ad, images of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg flash on the screen. “Big tech is taking over our lives,” the candidate says in the ad. “And they want more. Grabbing our land, water, electricity, and sticking us with the bill.”

Harvie also targeted Fitzpatrick’s initial vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the House last year, which included a provision that would ban state or local governments from enacting limiting or regulating AI systems and models. (Fitzpatrick voted against the final version of President Donald Trump’s bill, citing changes in the U.S. Senate that increased cuts to Medicaid. The final version did not include the controversial AI provision.)

Heather Roberts, a spokesperson for Fitzpatrick’s campaign, said in a statement that the Bucks County Republican has always been supportive of “uniform federal regulations” and “100% control by local residents who could be impacted.”

She also pointed to his cosponsorship of two bills aimed at regulating the effects of data centers: the Ratepayer Protection Act and the Data Center Transparency Act.

“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,” Roberts said.

Fitzpatrick has also released a digital ad targeting Harvie on data centers.

In an interview about data centers last week, Harvie did not call for a moratorium on the projects, but rather for strict regulations — as is also reflected on his campaign website. He also touted tasking the county planning commission with developing guidelines for municipalities facing potential data center proposals.

When asked last week why he had not called for a moratorium, Harvie said: “I think there’s probably areas in the country where data centers can make sense, where the energy grid can handle it, where there’s limits to it on the impact it could have on other people who might live in the area.”

“But I do think certainly we need to have a lot of cause for concern about how rapidly this is happening and making sure we can put some kind of handle on it,” he added.

He also echoed residents’ environmental concerns related to data centers and said that the developments need the increased oversight outlined in Shapiro’s executive order and that projects should not continue if the local community opposes.

Nine days later, Harvie said Thursday in another interview with The Inquirer that the decision for a moratorium did not come “out of left field for me” but was the product of many conversations amid what he says is a “complete failure of leadership” by Trump and Republicans, including Fitzpatrick, on the issue.

Of his 2020 vote to give NorthPoint a tax break, he said there was not an indication that the property was going to be used for data centers, but rather for e-commerce distribution.

He said that he is not set on one particular time frame for the moratorium but that “setting up guardrails” is most important, and he hopes a Democratic-controlled Congress would further hold hearings on imposing a moratorium.

“As we’ve seen more and more of what’s going on around the country with data centers just trying to gobble up space and build, build, build without any regulation, I’ve come to the point now where we have to do something to slow down this genie getting out of the bottle,” Harvie said.