One month out from Oregon’s May Primary Election, grassroots resistance to the data center takeover in Washington County threatens to deal a critical blow to the state’s political establishment.
Pent up anger and frustration finally boiled over into political action earlier this year and has escalated into primary challenges for important legislative seats.
At a surface level, data centers seem like the quiet capital project that built Oregon’s Silicon Forest. That may be why Oregon’s Democratic Party leadership was caught flatfooted when a rare urban-rural firestorm erupted over Governor Tina Kotek’s “economic development” efforts (land giveaways and tax breaks) to her data-center backers like Amazon and Google.
The grassroots coalition reflects the numerous costs of data center construction in Oregon, including skyrocketing utility rates, environmental degradation, and agrarian depletion.
Data centers’ key role in AI proliferation also means they contribute significantly to the AI ‘revolution’ eviscerating labor standards around the country. But the harm is not only domestic; it’s directly tied to the horrors of the United States’ wars in the Middle East.
According to research by Portland DSA’s BDS working group, the Portland-based company Sightline Intelligence has been shipping drone technology components to Israeli military contractor Elbit Systems. Sightline’s website emphasizes the use of its technology for “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance” and Al-assisted target recognition.
The Data Centrists
Enter Janeen Sollman, Democratic State Senator for District 15 and chair of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, who co-sponsored a bill this year — alongside dozens of other statehouse Democrats — which would have rezoned 1,700 acres in Hillsboro for data center construction.
The bill died in committee, after facing what the Oregonian called a “buzzsaw of opposition, including from farmers and conservationists, who were worried that the proposal would bring more data centers and relatively few jobs to Hillsboro, without yielding property tax revenue for public services.”
Locally, Washington County’s established political class (almost all Democrats) is fairly united on the data center issue. In line with their Chamber of Commerce backers, they are strong supporters of data center construction, despite sharp pushback from their constituents.
These ‘Chambers’ of Commerce play a critical role in whipping political support for the data centers, and their relationships with transnational technology corporations are substantial.
Intel’s chief lobbyist Carly Riter chairs the Washington County Chamber and Amazon is the Chamber’s “Exclusive Champion” for advocacy. In Portland, firms with substantial data center interests helm the Metro Chamber’s Board of Directors, including Intel, Google, Microsoft, Northwest Natural Gas, and Portland General Electric.
Campaign finance records show large contributions from the Washington County and Metro (Portland) Chambers of Commerce to incumbents and wannabe electeds including Sollman, Oregon House District 27 (Beaverton) hopeful and current Beaverton City Councilor Ashley Hartmeir-Prigg, Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty, West Portland/NE WashCo State Senator Lisa Reynolds (SD-17) and a cast of Washington County Commissioner incumbents and hopefuls.
Up-ballot, Governor Kotek is more savvy. After the organizing “buzzsaw” caught her off guard, she convened an ‘advisory group’ earlier this year to direct grassroots energy into a dead end process, purportedly to give the public a voice in weighing the costs and benefits of handing over public resources to the largest companies in the world.
At the group’s first meeting, a data center industry insider was sober about the downsides for Oregonians:
Resistance at the Ballot Box
Not all candidates running for Washington County political office are captured by the data center industry.
Portland DSA’s army of volunteers has already helped knock 14,000 doors for physician Tammy Carpenter, who is running for an open seat in OR-27 against Chamber of Commerce-backed Hartmeier‑Prigg.
DSA endorsed Carpenter for her commitment to the chapter’s Renters’ Bill of Rights and open democratic socialist politics.
Carpenter took an early position against the data center explosion, and she’s backed a petition launched by allied Washington County area political candidates calling for a moratorium on new data centers:
Similarly, data centers are a hot topic at the doorstep across Washington County. “I’m hearing data center resistance coming up again and again from our members when they are out on the doors volunteering for Tammy Carpenter,” said Portland DSA Co-Chair Carolyn Roderique.
According to the Oregonian, Data center proponents like Sollman, the SD-15 incumbent for Hillsboro, are also getting an earful from residents on the doorstep:
“…but a data center is not going to solve our problems. We have already made too many compromises to Intel, like on air quality. I don’t believe that what Hillsboro needs is to give up great farmland.”
–Hillsboro resident Katie Clark-Alsadder in the The Oregonian, “Can Oregon’s progressive left unseat 2 of the Legislature’s most moderate Democrats?” April 22, 2026
Contribute to Tammy Carpenter’s DSA-backed campaign for Oregon House District 27. Take it from fellow DSA-member and Oregon State Representative Farrah Chaichi:
❝We need people like Tammy Carpenter in the legislature who will ask how we can tax millionaires and billionaires instead of burdening working class Oregonians with cuts to services. I’ll be thrilled to serve alongside a fellow DSA member.❞