By Liam Niemeyer
Kentucky Lantern
May 11, 2026
Cody Stinnett, 32, has been a registered Republican since he was eligible to vote, but he plans to change it to become an Independent after the May primary elections in Kentucky.
A significant reason why: his strong concerns about the proliferation of power-intensive data centers across the country, and the fact that some Republicans — including President Donald Trump and Kentucky U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, who’s running for U.S. Senate — have supported the data center expansion.
That includes the potential for one coming to his “own backyard” in Mercer County. He’s organized with a local group of people who are worried about how a data center would impact the environment, electricity rates and local resources such as fire prevention.
Stinnett is one of a number of people who’ve spoken before a county planning and zoning commission that’s now considering a draft ordinance to regulate such data centers. Organizing with that group, We Are Mercer County, has also galvanized Stinnett to another first: running as a write-in candidate to be a county magistrate.
“The data center definitely got me to run,” Stinnett said. “After seeing how decisions are made here and how it affects regular families, I decided to bring my real-world common sense to try to bring it to the magistrate position. People deserve someone who will actually listen to them.”
His candidacy is just one of many examples of how the prospect of data centers moving into Kentucky — in need of large amounts of electricity and water to power clusters of computers boosting online services including artificial intelligence — have been animating politics and elections across Kentucky.
It’s also led to contentious debates in local communities grappling with the peril and potential of data centers, the clash between local elected officials who perceive economic development benefits and constituents worried about the environmental impacts.
Stinnett describes himself as a “regular guy” who wants to look out for neighbors who could potentially be living near a data center.
“I’ve lived in Mercer County for six years. My fiance, she’s grew up here whole life. We’re wanting to continue that tradition and raise our three-year-old son here,” Stinnett said.
Emerging data center disputes
The debate and concerns over a potential data center in Mercer County have been evolving for months.
The Harrodsburg Herald reported in December 2025 that the Mercer County Planning and Zoning Commission was hiring a consultant to deal with the possibility of a large-scale data center in the community. The newspaper reported the chair of the commission, Bobby Upchurch, said there “may be a request for our community sooner rather than later.”
The Mercer County Industrial Development Authority told the Lexington Herald-Leader in February that a private landowner was marketing a sprawling piece of undeveloped land near the coal-fired E.W. Brown Generating Station run by Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities.
In the planning and zoning commission meetings since, media outlets have reported that concerned residents have packed the meetings, including a special-called meeting in late April where the commission unveiled a draft ordinance on data center regulation.
A provision in the draft ordinance details that newly established zones for data centers shall be within at least a mile away “the intersection of the eastern right-of-way of Curdsville Road and the main entrance to the E.W. Brown power plant property.”
The more than three-hour-long meeting in April, archived on social media, heard from people with concerns ranging from worries about the use of “prime farmland” for the project and whether the costs of electricity infrastructure upgrades needed to serve data centers would be burdened by other ratepayers.
Diane Floyd, one of the organizers with We Are Mercer County and a biology professor at the Hazard Community and Technical College, told the Lantern she’s worried her local government doesn’t have the knowledge or resources to adequately vet potentially massive projects backed by “giant tech companies” and protect their community from impacts.
“I don’t think that there’s a single person in our local government that has ever even come close to making a deal of that size and the impacts on us as individual citizens,” Floyd said. “It’s all going to have a long term impact, and it’s going to change the way our small rural life looks.”
Calls for a pause on data centers
Multiple people during that April meeting called on the county fiscal court to implement a moratorium on data centers to give the local government more time to assess potential regulations and impacts.
Randy Strobo, an environmental attorney representing Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, a local nonprofit preserving homes and buildings associated with the Kentucky Shaker community, told the commission the proposed draft ordinance was incomplete, short-sighted and potentially unlawful.
“A temporary pause for planning will allow the community to properly assess infrastructure demands, fiscal impacts and land use consequences rather than rushing to an irreversible decision,” Strobo said.
The idea of a data center moratorium is one that’s gained traction among some Democratic politicians in Kentucky running in the May primaries. Erin Petrey, a candidate for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional district, called for a “full moratorium” on data centers at that April meeting.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker has also called for a moratorium, and another Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Logan Forsythe, visited with anti-data center organizers in early April.
The idea also has traction with a local Republican candidate in Mason County, the epicenter of a much older data center fight. The nonprofit group We Are Mason County is suing the local government, arguing an ordinance to regulate data centers there is in conflict with the county’s comprehensive plan.
That candidate, Max Moran, the nonprofit’s leader who’s running as a Republican to be county judge-executive, told the Lantern the “data center issue” is the reason he began his run for office but is one of several issues he’s campaigning on, primarily centered on improving government transparency.
Democratic incumbent Judge-Executive Owen McNeill, the county’s former economic development director, is in support of the project because of the potential local tax benefits and the opportunity to bring well-paying jobs to the county. McNeill did not respond to emailed interview requests from the Lantern.
McNeill has previously defended the use of elected officials signing non-disclosure agreements to discuss the data center project behind closed doors, saying it’s a necessary part of the economic development process. Critics, including Moran, have panned it as anti-transparent.
State lawmakers in Frankfort ultimately did not pass any sort of regulation or limits on data centers before legislators ended their regular legislative session in mid-April.
Moran said he finds that disappointing.
“With Kentucky in general, we always seem to regulate when it’s too late, when no regulations apply, or we overregulate before something takes off,” Moran said.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Josh Bray, R-Mount Vernon, that would have required utilities to ensure other ratepayers do not bear the costs of data center infrastructure died on the final legislative day of this year’s session in Frankfort.
Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, which serves Mercer County, and East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which serves Mason County, have argued their existing regulations for data centers approved by the Kentucky Public Service Commission are protective of ratepayers.
Other state legislatures have also considered measures such banning non-disclosure agreements associated with such projects, rolling back tax breaks for data centers or proposing moratoriums on data center construction.
For Stinnett, the Mercer County magistrate candidate, he said he would be in favor of all of the above.
“It doesn’t seem to matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, whether it be Republican or whether it be Democrat. We’re all in this together, and we’re trying to fight it. I love it.” Stinnett said.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Linda Blackford for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.
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