Hour 3 - The Next Political Battlefield

Buck Sexton (0:00)

Hour 3 of Clay and Buck kicks off now. It's just Buck today.

Clay, I don't know, some people are saying, there's some rumors, maybe he is getting a giant orange V tattooed on his left shoulder for his vols, his beloved vols. I don't know, some people are saying, big tattoo, big tattoo guy, the Clay Travis, all of a sudden, maybe. You could ask him about that when he comes back.

SPEAKER_2 (0:26)

I feel like a big tattoo would hurt.

Buck Sexton (0:28)

I know many of you have them and you could tell me this, but I don't know. I don't even like going to the dentist. I don't even like getting my teeth clean, nevermind getting a tattoo. Good heavens. All right, this is really interesting to me. This is a debate that is raging across the country right now, played out in this election and matters a whole heck of a lot at the local level for sure, state, federal, international, national security, global American supremacy. That's right, friends, let's talk about data centers for a minute here, shall we? We have discussed this before on the program. Data centers have become and were a hot button topic leading up to this last election. Now, they weren't really, they're not yet really a partisan thing in that it's not Republicans are all for them and Democrats are all against them. Really, what I tended to see was some last-minute scrambling by campaigns of all kinds of both parties to come up with some messaging on this issue. Now, it's not a primary issue. We know what the primary issues were, but it certainly ties into the economy, and it's really important for the future of our economy. I think it's very interesting stuff when you start to dig into it. And believe it or not, The Washington Post had a pretty interesting piece on the town of Harwood, North Dakota. Now, we have a very big reach on this program. I don't know if we have an active listener right now in Harwood, North Dakota. I know we have a station in North Dakota, but if we have anyone listening in Harwood, please do send a talk back or call and wait to tell us about your own experience of this. Because you would have experienced it in so far as there's only a few hundred people in the town, and this data center issue became a big deal. It's near Fargo. We all know Fargo because of both the movie and the TV show. Wait, but that's Fargo, Minnesota, right? Right? Isn't that a different Fargo?

Did I just step on that? Is it Fargo, North Dakota, or is there a Fargo, Minnesota, too? Wow. Guys, sometimes you're doing live radio and you just get tangled up in yourself. Is there more than one Fargo? I thought Fargo was in Minnesota. I could be... Greg, where are you on this?

Okay, there is a Fargo, North Dakota. That I know, but isn't there a Fargo, Minnesota, or have I just completely betrayed an ignorance of American geography that will come back to haunt me and all of our both Minnesota and North Dakota listeners are going to mock me for weeks on end now. That's okay, I deserve it. Fargo, North Dakota, for sure.

But they have the accent, the oh yeah, don't you, that can't be a North Dakota accent, is it? Oh gosh, from the whole don't you know, you know, that's not okay, whatever. November 3rd, midterms, let's talk about it. There were 40 data center ballot, maybe 41, let's call it 40 Forty-ish ballot initiatives about data centers. Data centers were voted down in all but one of them. And the one that voted in favor of data centers was a good old, my favorite, the beautiful place, Harwood, North Dakota. And residents there voted on a home rule, a charter amendment that would have required independent reviews, public hearings and more transparency for large industrial projects, explicitly including data centers. It failed by a wide margin, about 325 votes against the restrictions to 105 in favor. So the data center wasn't explicitly on the ballot itself, but this was a vote about tighter rules for data centers. And they said no.

And this all ties in to something.

A Texas-based Applied Digital wants to build a large campus on the outskirts of town, a $3 billion, 1.8 million square foot facility.

Oracle is the planned end customer for this, by the way. So that's who takes over and actually operates, uses the facility. These are the guys Applied Digital is gonna build it all. And full operations are expected sometime in 2027 for this. So Harwood said yes for the fund. Now, just keep in mind, these data centers have been slapped down everywhere, at least with tighter restrictions or there has to, so. And I'm not pro-build a data center in your backyard without your say so. The same way that I wouldn't be pro-put a railroad in your backyard without your say so, right?