Dopesick author Beth Macy is challenging Republican Rep. Ben Cline for Virginia’s 6th District seat, held by Republicans for more than 33 years. She wants a data-center moratorium until an AI czar is in place to protect jobs, land, electricity and water.
On the trail, Macy carries a reporter’s notebook and shares voters’ accounts on social media. At a fundraiser, two couples told her a data center was proposed beside land their families had held for 300 years. In Botetourt County, the water requirement for a 312-acre data-center campus became public after Roanoke Rambler founder Henri Gendreau filed a request under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. Farmers in the region also face high diesel and fertilizer costs and a loss of immigrant workers.
Macy compares the data-center debate with the opioid crisis, arguing that communities may not know the consequences for resources such as water and electricity. She also backs free community college, saying Google or data-center companies should pay, and has received an AFL-CIO endorsement. Cline agreed to three debates but later appeared to limit them to candidate forums, which Macy criticized. He won by nearly 30 points in 2024; Virginia’s Supreme Court struck down a voter-approved redistricting plan Democrats hoped would help the party.
