In a recent debate, Minnesota attorney general candidate Ron Schutz pledged to insulate himself from his vast stock portfolio if elected.

The Republican, in a close race with Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison, had faced questions about conflicts of interest related to his 174 stock holdings. Each investment exceeds $10,000, many of them in Fortune 500 staples like Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Disney.

But Schutz is also deeply invested in Meta, Microsoft, Google’s parent company and more than a dozen more corporations looking to build, use or maintain hyperscale data centers. 

It’s the latest example of how data centers are shaping races across Minnesota and the country.

A growing election issue

Opposition to data centers is motivating newcomers to run for local office in cities linked to projects. Meanwhile, some of the most competitive state legislative and congressional races feature attacks on candidates centered around the issue.

At a press conference Friday in Winona, Democratic congressional candidate Jake Johnson accused U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, R-1st District, of accepting money from a Chinese-owned data center company’s lobbyist. Johnson, among a growing number of candidates who’ve come out in support of data center moratoriums, also accused Finstad of fast-tracking data center developments.

Polls suggest public opinion is decidedly against data centers, creating a potential wedge issue for candidates in close races. The Pew Research Center found only 4% of Americans feel the projects have mostly good impacts on the environment, energy costs and quality of life.

A coalition known as No Dirty Data Centers MN released a voter guide this week. Peter Wagenius, a coalition member representing the Sierra Club Northstar Chapter, said the guide underscores the need for stronger state laws against data centers.

“If candidates say, ‘Well, we’ll just leave it to the local officials,’ that’s encouraging a race to the bottom,” he said. “That’s allowing the biggest, richest corporations in human history to play cities off against each other.” 

As much as coalition members want stronger state laws on the books — after several pieces of legislation went up in smoke last session — legislation may only be as good as the elected official enforcing them. That’s where the attorney general comes in.

Related: Data centers: Where projects go, local candidates follow

If elected, Schutz would be tasked with protecting Minnesota consumers from environmental risks and utility rate hikes associated with AI data centers. One of an AG’s roles is going after companies that are ripping off consumers, said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

“You want an AG who is focused on what’s going to happen to my electric bill,” he said. 

A candidate “chock-full” of conflicts of interests, on data centers for example, would struggle to gain the public’s trust, he added. “This is exactly what’s going to stir up a lot of populist anger about data centers,” he said. 

Ellison has been wading into data center issues. He recently submitted comments to the state’s Public Utilities Commission warning of Google’s Pine Island data center potentially shifting $1 billion in costs to Xcel ratepayers. 

“My office represents individual ratepayers, people like you and me, as well as small businesses before the Public Utilities Commission, which determines how much energy companies can charge you for power,” he said in a statement. “So when a data center comes into a community, uses a ton of power, and tries to shift the cost of that power to Minnesotans, I’m the one standing in their way and protecting everyday Minnesotans.”

On his campaign trail, data centers and big tech will be the focus of a town hall Sunday in Cloquet.

Related: Ron Schutz stock portfolio

Schutz’s response to a MinnPost request for comment pointed to his recent KSTP interview. In it, Schutz generally described plans to divest himself from his asset portfolio and place stocks in a blind trust. 

“I won’t know what’s in my stock portfolio,” he said. “I will divest from those companies that are in active litigation with the state right now.”

He added: “Especially on a consumer protection front, that’s a major part of what the attorney general does,” he said. “And I would anticipate frequently suing companies that were taking advantage of Minnesotans.” 

Taking stock of Schutz’s assets 

Apart from interests in big tech behemoths pursuing hyperscale projects in Hermantown, Pine Island, Rosemount, Monticello and more Minnesota cities, Schutz’s portfolio has a host of other stocks linked to data centers. Nvidia is an industry leader in AI processing power. Nextera is an electricity supplier for data centers. EMCOR Group sells itself as an “end-to-end” data center solutions company. 

Ellison has no securities listed in his financial disclosure. A spokesperson for his campaign — which pointed to 23 investments by Schutz in data center-related companies — confirmed that Ellison held one individual stock and one mutual fund when he first ran for attorney general in 2018. He has since sold them. 

Other candidates for statewide office have similarly modest stock holdings. Auditor candidates Zack Filipovic and Scott Jensen have one stock disclosure each. Gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth has two, while Amy Klobuchar has none.

In a statement, Ellison said it’s deeply concerning that his opponent would stand to profit when data centers shift costs onto Minnesotans.

“My opponent owns stock in Google’s parent company, Alphabet, so he stands to personally profit if Google successfully makes people like you and me pay the power bill for their data center,” he said. “The Attorney General of Minnesota is supposed to be the people’s lawyer, and the people should never have to wonder whether their lawyer is actually just in it for himself.”

Related: In pausing data centers, Minnesota courts did what local officials wouldn’t

Aubree Derkson, part of the Stop the Pine Island Data Center citizen group, said she’s withholding support for statewide candidates who haven’t strongly come out against data centers. For example, she hasn’t yet seen enough daylight between the gubernatorial candidates on the issue.

In the attorney general’s race, however, Schutz’s data center-related stocks take him out of consideration. Even placed in a blind trust, she said, his investments could result in him benefiting from the developments.

“Communities are questioning their city council members on whether or not their city council members are financially profiting,” she said. “If communities are doing that to local government officials, there’s no way that an attorney general candidate could walk into our community and think that we’re going to look the other way.”

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