Democratic firm behind ‘Republican’ campaign to oust Box Elder commissioners over data center

A Democratic campaign firm is behind an effort to convince rural Republicans to oust Box Elder County commissioners who approved a special zoning agreement in May for a controversial data center proposal.

Fulcrum Campaigns, led by two former executive directors of the Utah Democratic Party, has spent nearly $11,000 on mailers, advertisements and a website branded as “Republicans Against the Stratos Project Data Center.”

The negative ad campaign encourages voters to remove commissioners Boyd Bingham, a rancher; and Lee Perry, a former state lawmaker; who both face a Republican challenger in the upcoming June GOP primary elections.

The ads were paid for by Majorities Matter PAC, a committee created in 2025 by Thom DeSirant — a partner at the Fulcrum Campaigns consulting firm — to build Democratic legislative majorities across the state.

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But currently, the PAC is only being used for the ad campaign against the Box Elder County commissioners, said DeSirant, a Millcreek City Council member who directed the state Democratic Party from 2022-2024.

“There’s a lot of people who are pretty upset about the Stratos project and the manner in which it was approved,” DeSirant told the Deseret News. “Some people reached out and said that they wanted to get something out very quickly to land when ballots landed.”

The clients have yet to pay his firm, DeSirant said, which is why Fulcrum Campaigns appears as the only donor to Majorities Matter. He said he will update the state disclosures once the group finalizes their organization.

The ads, combining conservative talking points with a Republican-red layout, contribute to the conflicting messages GOP voters have already heard about the data center from leaders, media and Democratic activists.

‘As deceptive as it can get’

Both Box Elder County officials and their colleague, former Brigham City Mayor Tyler Vincent, have received a wave of threats from Utahns upset about the massive artificial intelligence hub potentially coming to the area.

Concerns about the possible environmental impacts and the process used by the statewide Military Installation Development Authority to fast-track the data center projects have united voters across the political spectrum.

In an interview with the Deseret News, Perry said not only do the ads misrepresent the PAC’s partisan affiliation, he believes they also misrepresent the commissioners’ actions, which played a relatively small role in the project approval.

“It’s as deceptive as it can get,” Perry said. “Doing something like that is like saying that I’m a Cougar fan and there I am wearing red in the stands cheering for the University of Utah. That’s how I see it.”

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State leaders, including MIDA chair state Senate President Stuart Adams, brought the Stratos Project to the Box Elder County Commission after it was already well under way, Perry said. The county did not seek it out.

The commission did what it could to hold public meetings on April 22, April 27 and May 4, after they learned about the project to request more information from the developers and to get feedback from the community.

But commissioners were informed by MIDA, which holds quasi-governmental authority, they could support the process, or the project would continue without them, and potentially lead to lawsuits from the developer, Perry said.

Perry believes the Stratos Project, promoted by Canadian Investor Kevin O’Leary, would not have elicited so much backlash if it had begun with a public information campaign 4-5 months before seeking county approval.

‘I’m just tired of the lies’

The ads from Majorities Matter PAC feature prominent images of conservative figures like talk show host Tucker Carlson, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and state House Speaker Mike Schultz with quotes criticizing the data center.

Carlson, in an interview with O’Leary, asks, “Why are taxpayers forced to pay for it?” likely referring to the property tax relief MIDA granted to the developers of the data center project as an incentive.

A quote from Cox declares the approval process “was not good,” and another from Schultz states, “this data center is not a good thing.” These comments unfairly pit state officials against the commissioners, according to Schultz.

“I’m just tired of the lies. ... It’s dishonest and it’s misleading,” Schultz told the Deseret News. “I know both of them personally, they’re both really good people, and are doing what they think is best for their county.”

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The fact a Democratic operation is responsible for the “Republicans Against the Stratos Project Data Center” campaign fits into a pattern of “misinformation” that has surrounded the Box Elder data center, Schultz said.

O’Leary is partially to blame for failing to respond to “fair questions” with accurate information, Schultz said.

Since its announcement, Utahns have reacted with surprise and outrage at the proposal’s projected size and power consumption at full build-out — which could equate to double the state’s peak energy demand.

This would require a natural gas plant onsite, increasing pollution and possibly temperatures in the surrounding areas, and having an uncertain impact on the amount of water used compared to the land’s current agricultural designation.

In reaction to public outcry, Cox pushed O’Leary to focus his permit applications to a first phase of 1 gigawatt, and Adams got O’Leary to agree to permanently reduce the project footprint from 40,000 acres to 20,000.