The Politics of Data Centers with VA Delegate John McAuliff

The Politics of Data Centers with VA Delegate John McAuliff

From Scaling Laws by Lawfare & University of Texas Law School

May 22, 2026 · 48 min

About this episode

John McAuliff discusses the political implications and legislative efforts surrounding data centers in Virginia.

John McAuliff, a Delegate in the Viriginia House of Delegates, joins Kevin Frazier, Director of the AI Innovation and Law Program and a Senior Fellow with the Abundance Institute, to discuss the ongoing debates around data centers at the state level.   John was one of the first candidates to recognize data centers as a key issue. He had to convince his polling team to put the issue on early surveys. Of course, they soon realized he was on to something. In his first legisatlive session as a delegate, John championed legislation to try to help counties negotiate with data center developers. He's not done working on the topic. Learn more about his plans and related issues by giving this episode a listen.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Frazier

Guest: John McAuliff

Topics covered

  • data centers
  • Virginia politics
  • legislation
  • local government
  • AI policy

Keywords

  • data centers
  • Virginia House of Delegates
  • legislation
  • local government
  • AI Innovation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Virginia House of Delegates, AI Innovation and Law Program, Abundance Institute

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