10/25/2026
How Zach Dembo is undermining the fight against AI data centers in central Kentucky:
On Monday I said that while the Zach Dembo (D) campaign is pretending to be on Kentuckians’ side in the fight against data centers, he’s actively undermining the fight against data centers in central Kentucky. It's time to explain how he's done that.
Dembo had, at one point, relayed through his campaign manager that he might be willing to participate in a candidate forum on AI data centers and Flock cameras if I walked back my “misrepresentation” of his campaign’s recently added official policy on data centers.
I obviously couldn’t agree to do that because when I criticized his views, I wasn’t talking about his new official policies in the first place. I was describing my impression of his actual views based on his behavior and his campaign funding. I stand by those comments.
As I’ve said time and time again, politicians represent their donors (Barber 2016). The endorsement Dembo received in the primary from former Lexington mayor Jim Gray—whose company is involved in the Mercer County data center proposal—and Gray’s $7,000 donation (the legal maximum) tell me a lot more about Dembo’s views than his vague and milquetoast “official” position ever could. His donations from Amazon attorneys and a policy specialist from Amazon reaffirm the conclusion that he isn’t serious about fighting back against data center development.
When I refused to apologize for not lying, Dembo could have just avoided the data center and Flock camera forums we organized for local, state, and federal candidates from all parties. That would be cowardly, but it would also be unsurprising because he knows he’d lose votes if he ever showed up. So would Alvarado if Alvarado showed up. So, I didn’t expect either of them to participate in any of the forums.
But I also didn’t expect the Dembo campaign to use the Kentucky Democratic Party itself to pressure other Democrats not to show up to the forums.
The Dembo campaign spread the lie that I am a liar who misrepresented his views on data centers. They pressured local Kentucky Democratic Party leaders to tell candidates that these candidate forums—which were meant to help voters learn where candidates from all parties stand on data centers—should not be attended by Democratic candidates because votes for our campaign would help the Republican candidate in KY-6, Ralph Alvarado.
Now, it’s important to think through the implications of this pressure:
•The Republican-dominated state legislature passed HB 775 and brought the data center crisis to Kentucky.
•Since Republican politicians created this mess, the Democratic Party should be taking the lead in the fight against data centers at the local, state, and federal levels.
•Democratic candidates who oppose data center development in Kentucky should be doing everything they can to connect with voters. Showing up to these forums would help them gain more votes, make it more likely for them to win their elections, and help the fight against data centers in central Kentucky.
•The pressure applied by Dembo’s campaign made it more likely that those candidates will lose, and more likely that data centers will ultimately be built in central Kentucky.
All of this is to say: Zach Dembo doesn’t care about fighting back against data center development. In fact, his campaign decided to undermine the fight against data centers just to prop up his own campaign. There are candidates who wanted to participate in these forums but backed out due to pressure applied by the Dembo campaign.
I have access to screenshots of multiple messages indicating what the Dembo team has done. Unfortunately, sharing them publicly would make it very easy for leaders of the Kentucky Democratic Party to determine the senders and recipients and punish Democrats who decided to prioritize the fight against data centers over blind loyalty to the Dembo campaign.
So while I could publish these screenshots publicly, I won't. I don't want to hurt anyone who's on the side of Kentuckians in the fight against data centers.
Unlike Dembo, I actually care about the fight against data centers in central Kentucky.
