‘We’ve Been Sold Out’: Residents Call Out Slick Rick Jackson for Forcing Data Center

ATLANTA — A new report from the AJC reveals Texas residents are calling out Slick Rick for owning and building a data center that is being forced into their community, with details long hidden by a secret non-disclosure agreement.

Slick Rick Jackson’s investments are forcing data center projects on residents in Bowie County, Texas, who feel they have been “sold out.”

Earlier this month, a report from Courier Georgia explained how Slick Rick Jackson quietly invested in the data center in Bowie County.

Keisha Lance Bottoms has called for a pause on the new construction of data centers to prevent Georgians’ utility bills from rising.

“This new report shows how Slick Rick Jackson is selling out the people of Texas, hiding behind lawyers and non-disclosure agreements to forcing a data center in their community,”said TaNisha Cameron, Keisha for Governor campaign spokesperson. “Rick Jackson sold out the people of Northeast Texas and he will sell out Georgians to personally profit off data center development. Keisha is the only candidate people can trust to stand up for them and put a pause on data centers to protect Georgia communities.”

Read below for excerpts:

Jackson has promised that, if elected, local governments and residents would decide whether data center projects move forward. And if developers shift costs onto residents, harm the environment, or fail to provide “concrete” financial benefits to surrounding communities, they wouldn’t move forward.
But in Bowie County, that stance has prompted howls of hypocrisy from a coalition of longtime homeowners, recent arrivals, frustrated retirees and amateur investigators who say they were blindsided by exactly the kind of secretive process Jackson has vowed to prevent in Georgia.
“We’ve been sold out,” said Paula Sorenson, a resident of the Bowie County town of Hooks. Sorenson said she blames Jackson for putting “profit over people.”
Christal Prince said she was digging into the companies behind several proposed data centers in this extreme northeast corner of Texas when she came across footage of Jackson acknowledging his role in the project.
Jackson listed himself as head of Datahub Developers in his campaign financial disclosure. Officials say the company is now known as Foundrie Hyperscale Data.
At first, only a handful of people came. On Thursday, about 100 showed up.
This is hardly a liberal crowd. President Donald Trump carried Bowie County by nearly 50 percentage points. As for Proctor, he makes clear he doesn’t talk partisan politics — though he made one exception.
“It’s stunning to me,” he said. “Rick Jackson has made a point of being responsive to the needs of Georgians with regards to data centers. But he shows no such regard to the God-fearing folks of Northeast Texas.”
The debate in Bowie County echoes a divide playing out across Georgia, where data centers have become a source of growing tension as developers pursue multibillion-dollar projects in suburban and rural communities.
And they plan to increase the pressure on Jackson, including an open letter from Proctor that urges him to travel to Bowie County and hear from Texans himself.
“But this is about more than politics. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. This is our home.”