\u201cWashington is a great place to do business and raise a family,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n
Here is what is left out of the GDP data. The growth came almost entirely from the information sector, meaning software, cloud computing, and digital services. Economists at Western Washington University say the surge traces to AI spending, with Amazon and Microsoft projected to pour roughly $390 billion into AI infrastructure this year. In other words, the artificial intelligence buildout Democrats love to demonize is the only thing keeping Washington\u2019s economic numbers respectable.<\/p>\n
Democrats ban the industry, then take credit for it<\/p>\n
While Washington Democrats bragged on social media, the party\u2019s local officials were busy outlawing the growth engine.<\/p>\n
The Seattle City Council voted unanimously in June for a one-year moratorium on large data centers, dismissing a federal warning that the ban raises national security concerns<\/a> in the technology race against China. Councilmember Debora Juarez went further, telling a cheering audience she would halt AI and data center development entirely if she could. Two weeks later, Spokane\u2019s council passed its own yearlong moratorium on a 6-1 vote after activists melted down over a proposed 500-megawatt facility that Avista was negotiating.<\/p>\n So the sector delivering the GDP growth Democrats are celebrating cannot actually build anything in the state\u2019s two largest cities. Think about how absurd that is. The party is posting the receipts from an industry it treats like a public health hazard, and nobody in leadership seems embarrassed by it.<\/p>\n The rest of the economic picture exposes the con. Washington\u2019s unemployment rate sits at 5.2%, nearly a full point above the national average of 4.3% and among the worst in the country. The state added a pathetic 2,300 net payroll jobs over the past 12 months. GDP measures output, and a handful of tech giants can generate enormous output while the rest of the state\u2019s labor market rots.<\/p>\n The jobs Democrats rejected could replace the jobs AI killed<\/p>\n Seattle leads global rankings for AI-driven layoffs, with Meta, Oracle, Snap, and others shedding thousands of local jobs this year. Meanwhile, the Seattle metro lost roughly 1,700 construction jobs<\/a> over the past year, ranking 347th out of 360 metros, precisely because the hottest driver of construction nationwide skipped a region that made itself hostile.<\/p>\n Data centers will not replace every job AI eliminates. Nobody serious claims they will. But they generate exactly the work Washington is bleeding; construction trades during the multi-year buildouts, then electricians, HVAC technicians, security staff, and operations crews once facilities open. Those are solid middle-class jobs that do not require a computer science degree. Democrats looked at that trade and chose the applause of activists who chanted about tech billionaires at public comment.<\/p>\n The honest version of the story is simple. AI investment saved Washington\u2019s GDP numbers. Washington Democrats banned the infrastructure that investment requires, then took a victory lap on the results. When the data center money finishes flowing to Texas, Georgia, and Ohio, and the quarterly numbers come back to earth, the same politicians will blame everyone but themselves.<\/p>\n Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3 p.m. \u2013 7 p.m. on Seattle Red on 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here<\/a>. Follow Jason Rantz on X<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Seattle-Red-Subscribe-to-Newsletter-830x100-1.jpg\")
\t