{"id":478379,"date":"2026-09-28T16:30:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/478379\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T16:30:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:30:35","slug":"fact-check-james-link-to-data-center-tax-breaks-donations-the-oakland-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/478379\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact check: James\u2019 link to data center tax breaks, donations \u2013 The Oakland Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published<\/a> by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Sign up for a free newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

By Miles MacClure for Bridge Michigan<\/p>\n

Attack ads suggests GOP governor candidate John James voted for data center tax breaks, is funded by data center developers
\nDems point to James\u2019 vote for Big Beautiful Bill, which had broad tax breaks that were not specific to data centers but benefited them
\nDonors with ties to data center industry have donated to various James campaigns, including gubernatorial run<\/p>\n

As data centers continue to stir controversy across Michigan, related attacks are emerging in the governor\u2019s race between Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James.<\/p>\n

New online<\/a> ads<\/a> from Making Michigan\u2019s Future, a group supporting Benson\u2019s campaign, claims James voted for $70 billion in tax breaks for data centers as a member of the US House and has received more than $100,000 in campaign donations from data center developers.<\/p>\n

The donations claim is largely true, although some of those contributions to James were for his past campaigns for other offices. The claim that James voted for a $70 billion tax break for data centers is less straightforward.<\/p>\n

The ads are among several<\/a> that Bridge Michigan is fact-checking in the gubernatorial race, including claims about Benson\u2019s family ties to a data center project<\/a>. The general election winner will succeed Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is term-limited.<\/p>\n

Data center tax breaks<\/p>\n

One recent online ad<\/a> from Making Michigan\u2019s Future, which is backed by the Democratic Governors Association, claims that James \u201cvoted to give data centers a $70 billion tax break.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ad cites an analysis<\/a> from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning think tank, that said large tech companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Tesla received a collective $50.8 billion in tax breaks in 2025, \u201clikely from\u201d President Donald Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n

A second analysis<\/a> from the think tank, published on Sept. 17, claims that Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Oracle received a total of $69.78 billion in tax breaks in 2025, although it isn\u2019t clear how much was directly related to data centers.<\/p>\n

In Congress, James voted for the \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d law, which included provisions that increased tax write-offs for corporations making infrastructure and equipment investments.<\/p>\n

While companies building data centers are eligible for those tax breaks, they aren\u2019t exclusive to data centers, according to a separate analysis<\/a> from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. On Sept. 16, House Democrats introduced a bill<\/a> that would bar data centers from claiming those tax breaks.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bJames voted for a law that \u201chanded massive tax breaks to the Big Tech companies building data centers,\u201d Sam Newton, a spokesperson for Making Michigan\u2019s Future, said in a statement to Bridge Michigan. He cited ITEP<\/a> and a Tax Notes analysis saying the write-off provisions could be \u201cespecially important<\/a>\u201d to data center developers.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames can try to run from his record, but all Michiganders need to do is follow the money to see whose side he\u2019s on,\u201d Newton said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the final bill, James voted for an earlier House version of the \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d that included a section called the \u201cArtificial Intelligence and Information Technology Modernization Initiative,\u201d which would have barred state and local jurisdictions from creating laws to regulate data centers.<\/p>\n

James has since changed his position on local regulations, saying he supports a moratorium on new data centers until additional regulations are established.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe standards of my moratorium have been clear: no new data centers until we protect our people. We must re-establish local control, ensure no utility rate increases for residents, protect our water, air, land and noise from pollution while prioritizing brownfields and preserving farmland,\u201d James told Bridge in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"BridgeBridge Michigan<\/p>\n

James did not answer a question about providing tax breaks to data centers. Benson\u2019s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

She too has proposed a moratorium<\/a> on new data centers.<\/p>\n

Data center-linked donations<\/p>\n

Making Michigan\u2019s Future is running a second ad<\/a> on Facebook and Instagram that highlights political contributions from data center developers to James.<\/p>\n

In a video, a narrator claims that \u201cJohn James won\u2019t stand up to data center corporations while he\u2019s cashing their checks.\u201d Text that appears in the video includes \u201cJames took over $100k from data center developers\u201d and \u201cJohn James won\u2019t stand up for US.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, Bridge Michigan found<\/a> that James had received more than $100,000 in political contributions from donors with data center ties, although that figure is an accumulation from multiple election cycles dating back to 2018.<\/p>\n

Many of those contributions came from members of the Rakolta family, who founded and run Walbridge, a Detroit-based construction company contracted to build the hyperscale data center facility in Saline. Michael Haller, Walbridge\u2019s CEO, has also previously donated to James\u2019 campaigns.<\/p>\n

In January, Walbridge chair John Rakolta Jr. and his wife Terry Rakolta each donated $8,325 to James\u2019 gubernatorial campaign, according to Michigan campaign finance records. $8,325 is the maximum allowed by an individual to a gubernatorial campaign in Michigan.<\/p>\n

Rakolta is a longtime GOP booster and has also been a supporter of President Donald Trump, who he shared a stage with in 2024<\/a> during a Trump campaign stop in Detroit.<\/p>\n

Bottom line<\/p>\n

John James has received campaign donations from individuals with ties to data center developers in Michigan. While James didn\u2019t vote specifically to give data centers a $70 billion tax break, he did vote for the \u201cbig, beautiful bill,\u201d which broadened corporate tax breaks that data center developers have benefitted from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. Sign up for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[204,181,795,16663,100,143,145,144,13],"class_list":["post-478379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-election","tag-latest-headlines","tag-michigan","tag-michigan-news","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}