Rep. Mike Lawler (R-Hudson Valley) has a simple answer when voters ask about data centers: Let the towns decide.
“I support local control of zoning,” Lawler said during the Oct. 14 NY-17 debate on PIX11. He said he backs the moratoriums enacted by Orangetown, his hometown, and East Fishkill, while calling Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statewide pause “nonsensical.” Moderator Dan Mannarino asked whether he’d accept however many data centers a community approved. Lawler replied, “Yeah, if that’s what the local community wants.”
That stance has become central to Lawler’s reelection bid against Democrat Cait Conley in one of the most competitive House races in the country, where data centers have emerged as a defining issue.
His record is more complicated. It includes promoting Rockland County as a hub for the industry, voting for a House bill that would have barred states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade, and supporting a measure to speed federal permitting for projects like these.
‘The destination for data centers’
In March 2025, after speaking at the Rockland Business Luncheon, Lawler wrote on X that “our proximity to NYC has made Rockland the destination for data centers.” He added that he was “working hard” to bring a wave of pledged foreign investment to the Hudson Valley.
The mood in his backyard has since soured. Rockland hosts five data centers, four of them in Orangetown, and residents have staged repeated protests against a proposed expansion by DataBank in Orangeburg. In August, the Orangetown Town Board approved a six-month moratorium on new data center and battery storage applications. Town Supervisor Teresa Kenny has said the pause exempts DataBank’s expansion, which was already under review.
Rockland has also courted the industry with incentives, granting JPMorgan Chase $77 million in sales tax breaks for data center construction.
Lawler has sought to distance himself from the local build-out. At a press event outside the Chase data center in Orangeburg, he said he had no involvement in approving the town’s data centers. News 12 reported that records show two were approved before his 2018–2020 stint as Orangetown deputy supervisor and that he didn’t sit on the boards that approve such projects.
At the debate, Lawler said all five were built “before I was in elected office” and described them as “financial data centers,” separate from AI facilities. DataBank’s first Orangeburg building won its key town approvals in 2022, when Lawler was serving in the state Assembly.
Hochul’s moratorium
In June, the state Legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act, a one-year moratorium on new data centers that use 20 megawatts or more. Hochul has yet to sign it. In July, she instead paused new permits for facilities that use 50 megawatts or more by executive order.
Conley backs Hochul’s pause, and Lawler opposes it. He appeared on Fox Business on Sept. 2 to criticize the order, arguing that New York’s energy policies were costing the state its share of the AI boom.
Later that month, Lawler’s campaign launched a seven-figure ad campaign arguing that Conley wants to build data centers in the Hudson Valley, New York Focus reported. An accompanying press release demanded she say whether she supports Hochul’s moratorium. Conley had publicly endorsed it in July, and Lawler himself opposes it. The ad replays a clip of Conley saying “We need data centers” at an April forum and omits her warning, moments earlier, about the harm data center deals can bring to communities.
The votes behind the message
Lawler’s embrace of local control sits uneasily alongside his votes in Washington.
He voted for the House version of the 2025 Republican tax and spending law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a 10-year ban on state AI regulation before the Senate removed it, according to New York Focus. In December, he voted for the SPEED Act, which would narrow federal environmental reviews, including for data centers. The bill passed the House 221-196.
Conley has also accused Lawler of handing data center developers $80 billion in tax breaks through the 2025 law. At the debate, Lawler countered that the provision provides “100% expensing for every business in America” to write off plant, property and equipment. The expensing provision is open to any business, but the windfall has been concentrated. An analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that six companies central to the AI build-out (Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, JPMorgan Chase and Nvidia) claimed $83 billion in federal tax breaks in 2025.
Lawler points to the Ratepayer Protection Act, which he cosponsors, as evidence he wants data centers to cover their own power costs. The bill passed the House 417-3, but Senate Democrats blocked it on Sept. 30, arguing its standards were voluntary for states. Lawler blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer at the debate. Conley has said she supports the bill.
Conley’s position
Conley backs Hochul’s pause and has opposed the DataBank expansion. Asked at the debate whether she’d welcome new data centers once the moratorium expires, she said “it depends,” adding that any project “must be approved by that community” and must be “a net positive.”
Lawler has made Conley’s consulting work a centerpiece of his attacks, calling her “the AI candidate for the AI industry.” His campaign cites her financial disclosure, which shows $328,283 from two tech firms, Hidden Level and Primer, since January 2025. Conley said at the debate that her work is for “a New York company that brings drone detection systems to our soldiers.”
Early voting begins Oct. 24, and Election Day is Nov. 3.
Lawler’s campaign did not respond to Courier New York’s request for comment.
