With plans for a $150 billion hyperscale data center looming over their city, Independence residents — including many who otherwise haven’t engaged much in local politics — had been paying more attention to City Hall in recent months. And in a lot of ways, they didn’t like what they saw.
As the mayoral and council elections approached, some residents warned that candidates’ stances on the data center would be key to their vote. They made it clear that they were ready for new leaders to represent them.
Those voters stuck to their word at the polls last week, ousting two City Council members who had voted for tax breaks for the data center. Instead, voters opted for at least two political newcomers who had criticized aspects of the project on the campaign trail.
Stop The AI Data Center, the local group that rallied many of these voters, gathered with supporters in downtown Independence to watch election results come in, soon celebrating the victories of the candidates they endorsed.
Nebius, a Dutch corporation specializing in artificial intelligence services, will break ground later this year on an AI data center in northeastern Independence that will be twice the size of Arrowhead Stadium and will benefit from $6 billion in tax breaks that the Independence City Council passed last month, over the complaints of a room full of residents.
Nebius had previously said that they would be unlikely to continue building in Independence without the tax breaks, which won support from labor unions and education leaders who celebrated the windfall of tax revenue that the project will bring even with the subsidies.
But it drew widespread criticism from other residents.
Rachel Gonzalez, an organizer with Stop The AI Data Center, told the Independence City Council last week that she and other organizers hope that the results of Tuesday’s vote signals a clear, unified and continued resident opposition to the data center project.
“The people have tried to tell you clearly that we believe [the tax breaks] should have gone to a vote,” Gonzalez said. “...The voters of Independence have made it clear that they want leadership that listens, values transparency and respects accountability. It was not subtle. It was a mandate.”
A New Mayor
While both incoming Mayor Kevin King and Councilmember Bridget McCandless came out publicly in support of the data center in the weeks before the election, King remained publicly critical of council actions.
Residents’ biggest fears around the new data center have included potentially negative impacts on quality of life, risk of environmental destruction and unknown health effects associated with proximity to hyperscale AI data centers.
McCandless, who has served on the council for the past three years, was front and center in at least one of a series of community meetings leading up to the council’s March vote on data center financing, presenting information about the center’s water usage, wastewater production and payments to the local government, both of which were major talking points among opponents.
The data center will benefit from 90% to 98% breaks on property taxes and taxes on construction materials. Instead, Independence schools and other taxing jurisdictions will receive upwards of $650 million in PILOT fees (payment in lieu of taxes) over the next 20 years.
McCandless had consistently described the incoming data center as a necessary financial opportunity for Independence. At council meetings and on the campaign trail, she said that the planned cash infusions to the city and its taxing beneficiaries would be too transformative to pass up.
King, meanwhile, played a less public role in introducing residents to the concept of a hyperscale AI data center in their neighborhoods. King attended several of the same community meetings as his opponent, but stuck to the audience side.
After McCandless and her council colleagues approved the sweeping tax breaks, King consistently spoke on how its planning process exemplified poor communication from the city, saying that current leaders should have advocated for a better deal for Independence. In response to resident criticism of council members who did not directly meet with residents who live closest to the data center site before voting, King paid a visit to Bly Road.
Many of the same unions who spoke out in favor of the data center also supported and endorsed King for mayor, though McCandless also won key labor endorsements in the final weeks of her campaign.
King also threw his support behind a resident petition process — and a following lawsuit — seeking a public vote on the tax breaks before a judge ruled against the process in this situation.
City Council Ousting
Jared Fears, another staunch supporter of the data center’s arrival, also lost his seat in city government in last week’s election to Jackie Dorman, a realtor.
Fears was elected to the Independence City Council in April 2022 and previously worked for the city in several roles. Though he was vocal before the election about ensuring that the data center’s arrival did not result in higher energy bills for residents, he also joined McCandless in repeatedly identifying Nebius’ arrival as a financial windfall for the city.
Fears previously told The Star that the “hopeful significant income” from the data center will play a huge role in the city’s financial health in the coming years.
Dorman, the most critical candidate in the field when it came to the data center, will replace Fears. On the campaign trail, Dorman told residents and The Star that the city should have communicated more consistently with residents around plans for the data center, particularly those who live on Bly Road or in view of the site.
She has generally criticized current city officials for instilling residents with a lack of faith in city government, and has repeatedly taken to social media to praise residents for pursuing the recent legal challenge to the data center tax breaks.
“We’re taking our city back,” Dorman said on election night, minutes after she clinched a council seat. “...We’re done with excuses.”
Cody Atkinson, who also won a council seat Tuesday night, took a generally supportive stance on the data center but pledged to hold the city accountable to its promises around ecological conservation.
Atkinson has proposed using some incoming revenue associated with the data center to support animal services in Independence, including trap-neuter-release programs and municipally funded routine vaccinations for pets.
Meanwhile, former City Councilmember Lucy Young, who did not secure enough votes to return to the dais, drew criticism on social media in recent weeks for various statements in support of the data center and its financial possibilities.
A Key Endorsement
While dozens of endorsements were offered all around Independence leading up to Tuesday’s elections, the city’s anti-data-center effort threw significant weight behind King and Dormans’ campaigns.
Organizers with Stop The AI Data Center in Independence have continued to hold community meetings after the March 2 financing vote, while staying connected through a Facebook group that currently has more than 117,000 members.
In recent weeks, data center opponents used these online and in-person gathering spaces to campaign for both King and Dorman. Residents who had previously circulated petitions against the data center pivoted to door-knocking for the candidates, collaborating on campaign videos, encouraging their neighbors to show up to vote and even driving each other to the polls.
“For so many of us, this election was about more than just one race,” organizer Misty Vaughn wrote on Facebook. “It was about being heard. It was about standing up for our neighborhoods, our tax dollars, our environment, our schools, and the future of Independence.”
© 2026 The Kansas City Star. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
