WASHINGTON (TNND) — South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace called for a one-year moratorium on the creation of data centers in her home state.

“South Carolina is not Big Tech’s personal power grid,” she said in a press release on Monday. “These companies are planting massive data centers across our state, driving up energy demand, and leaving families and small businesses to pick up the tab. South Carolinians are already stretched thin. The last thing they need is a higher electricity bill subsidizing Big Tech’s bottom line.”

Data centers are buildings or factories that house IT infrastructure for building and delivering applications and services.

There has been a lot of backlash from local communities across the U.S. as some are being built in different states.

Many communities are concerned because data centers require large amounts of electricity and water. Communities are concerns about resources being drained, loud noise, land use and tax incentives.

“Reports say South Carolina has become a destination for data centers over the years and more are expected to come,” Mace’s press release reads. “Every new facility brings with it surging energy demand, costly grid upgrades, and growing pressure on utility companies to recover those expenses from ratepayers. South Carolina families cannot afford to keep picking up the tab.”

She said data centers need to pay their own way to come to South Carolina.

“A one-year moratorium gives South Carolina the chance to get this right,” Mace said. “When it is over, the rules are simple: data centers pay their own way or they do not come here. We don’t want to see eminent domain like what’s happening in Georgia, either.”

On Friday, May 8, I stood on the Old Tomlinson High School athletic field in Kingstree, a place etched into both my personal memory and American history. Sixty years ago, I sat on my grandfather’s shoulders at this very site during Mother’s Day weekend and listened to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver a speech that still echoes today: March on Ballot Boxes.

On that historic day in May 1966, more than 5,000 people gathered in Williamsburg County to hear Dr. King call African Americans — and all citizens of conscience — to register and vote. Among those present was a young James E. Clyburn, who would go on to represent South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District.

King’s message came at a pivotal time. On March 7, 1965, peaceful protesters were brutally attacked on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, during what became known as Bloody Sunday. That moment led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965, to protect voting rights.

As I returned to the field in 2026, I was struck by the contrast between past progress and present reality.

On the anniversary of Dr. King’s speech, the South Carolina General Assembly advanced H.5683, which seeks to redraw congressional districts, particularly the 6th Congressional District. This district was drawn as an African American-majority district in 1993. Critics argue the bill would weaken minority voting power.

Currently, this bill is moving through the legislative process, and despite its setback in the Senate, the debate is far from over.

The debate in South Carolina is shaped by the broader legal context created by U.S. Supreme Court decisions. In 2013, Shelby County v. Holder removed federal oversight of voting-law changes. In 2021, Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee made it harder to challenge voting restrictions. Together, these rulings weakened the Voting Rights Act. The court’s fresh ruling in Louisiana v. Callais fed the current redistricting push.