Add The New York Post on Google Republican Rep. Mike Lawler unloaded on his Democratic rival in a hard-hitting TV ad claiming she supports unpopular artificial intelligence data centers and mentioning her six-figure consulting work with AI firms.
The ad for the increasingly heated general election race in the Hudson Valley’s battleground 17th congressional district opens with a dark video of Army veteran Conley saying, “We need data centers.”
“Cait Conley has hundreds of thousands of reasons why she wants to build data centers in the Hudson Valley,” the narrator says. “Conley took a massive six-figure payday from the AI companies she steered contracts to when she worked for Biden.
A note appears across the screen stating Conley was paid $328,000 combined by AI firms Primer and Hidden Level, which received federal defense contracts, including during her time as national security adviser to former President Joe Biden.
Conley appears again in the 30-second spot saying, “We need data centers. We’re not going to get rid of them.”
Lawler then appears in the ad looking directly into the camera.
“I’m Mike Lawler and I approve this message because I’ll protect our community for your family and mine,” he says in the spot.
The video ends with a cheery video clip of Lawler with his wife and two daughters.
The nearly seven-figure ad coordinated by Lawler and the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee will run over nine days on broadcast and cable TV, streaming services and digital and social media sites, according to Lawler’s camp.
The 17th District, which includes Rockland County and portions of Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties, is a target to flip for Democrats as they fight to regain control of the House in November’s midterm elections.
The seat has the potential to determine which party controls Congress heading into 2027.
Independent campaign analysts, such as the Cook Political Report and the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics rate the race a toss-up between two-time incumbent Lawler and Conley.
The Conley campaign accused Lawler of waging a desperate attack that distorts her record, noting that Conley endorsed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s executive order calling for a one-year freeze on data centers in New York.
“Let’s be clear — Cait Conley supports a data center moratorium; Mike Lawler opposes one,” said Conley campaign spokesperson Maddy Rosen.
“On Mike’s watch, five data centers have been built in Rockland County, raising utility costs for ratepayers here. Mike is a former lobbyist for the utility monopolies profiting off of data centers, and he continues to rake in hundreds of thousands from Big Tech.”
The Conley rep, in the ferocious rebuttal, also said Lawler voted to give the artificial intelligence industry $80 billion in tax breaks for data centers, and then voted to make it easier to build them.
Her campaign said Lawler has taken $15,500 from Morgan Stanley’s PAC, which received a $2 million tax break from Rockland County for financing the Orangeburg data center on Ramland Road.
He also received $11,000 from JP Morgan’s PAC, the banking giant which received a $77 million tax break for expanding its data center in Orangeburg.
“Mike Lawler can lie all he wants to cover up his disastrous record, but at the end of the day, all you have to do is follow the money,” Rosen said.
The back-and-forth shows how backlash against AI data centers has become a volatile issue this election cycle, with polls showing broad bipartisan “not in my backyard” opposition.
Both Republicans and Democratic candidates across the country have sought to use the issue against their opponent.
But President Trump is a staunch supporter of AI data centers to keep America at the forefront of high tech as it competes against China for economic supremacy.
Lawler and the GOP thus far have outspent Conley and the Democrats $5.9 million to $3.4 million, according to tracker Ad Impact Politics.
Lawler first took the seat in 2022 when he defeated former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, then the chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee.
He defeated former lefty Rep. Mondaire Jones by six points in 2024 despite the district going blue for Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
Conley, an Army veteran, won a five-way primary to win the Democratic nomination — positioning herself as a mainstream and moderate challenger better suited to make a run in the suburban district that includes all or parts of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties.
Republicans attacked Conley during the primary, a signal that they believed she would be the most formidable candidate in the general election.
Members of Congress serve two-year terms and are paid salaries of $175,000.
