Georgia governor candidate shares opinion about data centers in Columbus visit

During his visit to Columbus on Thursday, Georgia gubernatorial candidate and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan weighed in on the rapid data center construction happening in Georgia.

Duncan old the Ledger-Enquirer statewide legislators should move “responsibly” on economic development projects, like large-scale data centers.

“We’ve got to be very responsible in how we move forward with large economic development projects, including data centers,” Duncan said. “We need to make sure that locals have all the controls in place to make sure that if they don’t want them in a certain part of the district or county, they can move those or can say no.”

He also encouraged legislators to ensure that energy and water charges shouldn’t be passed down to local communities.

“We’ve got to make sure that the costs of those data center improvements are not being spread out across ratepayers,” Duncan said. “That it is solely being tucked into that individual project as we move forward.”

Columbus development leaders have begun talks to bring a data center to the city.

At the Development Authority of Columbus meeting Thursday, Choose Columbus president and CEO Missy Kendrick announced a new project aimed at attracting an artificial intelligence data center to Columbus. Kendrick said the Development Authority has partnered with Habitat Real Estate Partners, a Georgia-based company, to secure a site.

“There is a lot of consternation about data centers, and I think Georgia has an opportunity to be innovative around them and make sure that local control dominates the conversation,” Duncan said.

Kendrick said there will be public hearings with local economic development officials, developers, and utility providers to discuss the project, but the dates have not been announced as of publication.

This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 2:57 PM.