07/02/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/193NHS34ja/?mibextid=wwXIfr
BREAKING:🇺🇸When Missouri's Governor implied that opposition to data centers in his state was being driven by Chinese misinformation, Republican State Representative Tricia Byrnes walked to a microphone in Wentzville, Missouri and said nine words that have since been shared thousands of times across the country.
"No one from China asked me to have you here today."
Byrnes, a Republican who represents part of St. Charles County in the Missouri House, has been at the center of a growing data center showdown in her state — one that has become a perfect mirror of the national fight playing out in hundreds of communities across America.
The flashpoint in her district is Montgomery County, where Amazon and Google have announced a combined $25 billion worth of data center projects — without what local residents say was adequate transparency or community input. Montgomery County farmer Harry Cope summed up what many residents feel: "The transparency that's gone on with all of this stuff in our county has been about like looking through muddy water."
Byrnes has now taken three concrete actions that have put her at the center of the national conversation:
⚡ She announced that the House Special Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs — which she chairs — will hold the first major public hearing on data center rules in Missouri on September 16, the same day as the annual veto session. Members of the public will be able to speak directly to lawmakers.
⚡ She unveiled the Missouri Data Center Community Accountability Act — legislation that would ban non-disclosure agreements between data center developers and local officials, require full transparency on electricity and water consumption projections, and give communities the power to pause development until they have the information they need to make a real decision.
⚡ She directly challenged her own governor's suggestion that data center opposition is foreign-driven, saying plainly that the people raising concerns in Missouri are intelligent Missourians — not Chinese agents.
"Missourians should never take a bad deal. And right now, folks are waiting for Jefferson City to stand up and pay attention, and I hope that this moment enforces and empowers that we need to be here for all of Missouri," Byrnes said.
Byrnes stopped short of calling for a statewide moratorium on data centers, saying that communities should be able to decide for themselves. However, she said that if the state doesn't tackle legislation on the issue, communities should consider a pause on data center development until they get more information. "If we're going to completely just run roughshod on all these counties that don't have planning and zoning, that is not right, and they should be able to say, 'I'm going to hold the brakes on this,'" she said.
The response from Missouri voters has been staggering. In May, the Missouri Rural Crisis Center mailed a survey to every active registered voter in Montgomery County — between 5,000 and 6,000 surveys. By June 22, nearly 1,500 had been returned. Of those, 85% expressed opposition to data centers. Just 154 expressed support.
"I think some of these pie in the sky ideas are great, but I'm not completely convinced he's not being sold by a bunch of lobbyists," Byrnes said of her governor's promotion of data center growth.
Byrnes is a first-term Republican lawmaker who has represented her district for less than two years. She is not a household name nationally. She is not a senator, not a cabinet member, not a billionaire. She is a state representative who listened to her constituents — and then stood up and told the most powerful people in her state exactly what she heard.
📍 Follow this page for more on how lawmakers across America are standing up to the data center boom!
Sources: KCUR / St. Louis Public Radio ("Missouri House to hold public hearing on possible data center rules in September," June 24, 2026 — kcur.org); KFVS12 ("Missouri lawmaker pushes for more transparency from data center developments," June 23, 2026 — kfvs12.com); Missouri House of Representatives official press release ("Byrnes Unveils Missouri Data Center Community Accountability Act," June 23, 2026 — house.mo.gov); Missourinet ("Missouri Lawmaker Pushes Data Center Transparency As Hearings Planned," June 24, 2026 — missourinet.com)
📸 Photos: A real press conference photo of Representative Tricia Byrnes announcing the hearing in Wentzville on June 23, 2026 is available directly in the St. Louis Public Radio article at stlpr.org and in the KCUR article at kcur.org — credited to the St. Louis Public Radio newsroom photographer.
