Former Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, who sold herself as an “independent” voice, is now taking heat for what critics call a full-blown corporate sellout — this time working “hand in glove” with the Trump administration to pressure local officials into approving a massive, resource-hungry artificial intelligence data center in Chandler, Arizona.
As reported by YourValley.Net, Sinema attended a recent Chandler Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to promote plans by New York-based developer Active Infrastructure to build a 420,000-square-foot AI data center. But Sinema didn’t come to listen to community concerns — she came to deliver a warning.
A video from the meeting, posted on X by 12News reporter Brahm Resnik, shows Sinema telling local leaders that they could either approve the data center now or have it forced on them later by the Trump administration.
“The AI action plan, set out by the Trump administration, says very clearly that we must continue to proliferate AI and AI data centers throughout the country,” Sinema said. “So federal preemption is coming. Chandler right now has the opportunity to determine how and when these new, innovative AI data centers will be built.”
She then added: “When federal preemption comes, we’ll no longer have that privilege, it will just occur, and it will occur in the manner in which they want it.”
That statement — essentially telling the city to get on board or be steamrolled — didn’t sit well with critics who saw it as a betrayal of democratic principles and local autonomy.
Across the country, AI data centers have already stirred backlash for their enormous appetite for electricity and water. Residents in multiple states have complained about rising utility costs and environmental damage tied to these projects.
Mike Jacobs, a senior energy manager with the Union of Concerned Scientists, released an analysis showing that data centers have added billions to Americans’ electric bills across seven states. In Virginia alone, he found that households subsidized data center transmission costs by roughly $1.9 billion in 2024.
For many progressives, Sinema’s appearance in Chandler confirmed what they’d long suspected — that her “independent” streak was always more about serving corporate interests than voters.
“[I] knew Sinema would show up in some super-scummy corporate role,” journalist Nathan Newman wrote on Bluesky. “But being handmaiden to the AI tech lords in strong-arming local communities to accept AI data centers—or face the wrath of the Trump administration—is about as low as it goes.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said the episode underscores why “we need a lifetime ban on members of Congress lobbying.”
Ian Carrillo, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma, blasted both Sinema and the tech industry for what he called undemocratic tactics. “The AI bubble can’t pop soon enough,” he wrote. “These data centers are rolled out in the most anti-democratic ways, involving NDAs, shadow companies and, according to Sinema, federal preemption.”
Nathan Robinson, editor of Current Affairs, accused Sinema of “openly threatening localities,” saying her message boiled down to:
“Approve resource-sucking AI data centers in your communities, or I will work with the Trump administration to inflict data centers on you without consent, regardless of the harm that occurs.”
And journalist Ryan Grim didn’t hold back, labeling Sinema a “cartoon villain.”
For a politician who once promised to stand up for Arizona’s independence and local voices, Sinema’s new gig — warning communities to accept Trump-backed corporate projects or be overruled — might just be, as one critic put it, “as low as it gets.”
Watch the clip below:
Former US Sen. Kyrsten Sinema lobbies for data center developer at Chandler AZ Plan Commission. Says she's working "hand in glove" w Trump Admin & warns city to embrace DCs or face federal intervention. City Council vote on Sinema's DC scheduled for Nov. 13. pic.twitter.com/KulHg594gj
— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik) October 24, 2025
