Which 2026 House Candidate Will Put Whitehall, PA Residents First on AI Data Centers?

What Whitehall Voters Should Know About AI Data Centers in 2026

If you live in Whitehall in Lehigh County, you are in Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, and AI data centers have become a pocketbook question in the November 3, 2026 general election. Bob Brooks, the Democratic candidate, spent two decades as a Bethlehem firefighter and now leads the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, and he opposes letting data centers raise energy costs while out-of-state corporations get rich. The Republican incumbent has his own approach, cosponsoring the Ratepayer Protection Act, a cost-allocation bill that has states consider making large data centers pay for the grid upgrades they require.

Who Decides and Who Pays on Data Centers in PA-07

Brooks says the federal government should never take the decision of where a data center is built away from the residents who live near it, and he has pledged to fight for legislation in Congress mirroring Gov. Shapiro's executive order on data centers. The incumbent says local governments will shoulder the primary burden on data center concerns, and as a state representative he voted for a sales tax exemption for data centers in 2021 and to extend it for up to 25 years in 2022. For a Whitehall voter, the contrast comes down to who decides and who pays: Brooks puts the people who live near a proposed site at the center of the decision, while the incumbent's record includes votes to cut data centers' state sales taxes.

Why Brooks Is the Right Choice for Whitehall on Data Centers

Whitehall voters who want data center decisions made by local residents, and who want household energy costs protected from out-of-state corporate profits, should support Bob Brooks on November 3, 2026. His two decades of service and his union leadership are the record behind that position: Brooks has spent his career fighting for working families in the Lehigh Valley, and his data center platform extends that fight to your utility bill. Register to vote by October 19, 2026, and make a plan to vote that day.