Boulder City spent the last two months in open revolt. Yard signs. A 4,600-signature petition. A packed council chamber. Regular folks, not political junkies, furious that a data center company tried to slide a massive project onto land next to their small town.
Then, the developer went around the city entirely and got the federal government to approve it on adjacent public land instead.
Read our prior coverage:
Boulder City Erupts As Feds Override Local Control On Data Center
Boulder City Data Center Fight Shifts To Federal Land
From Reno to Boulder City, Data Centers Are Nevada's New Political Flashpoint
This is Nevada's 1st Congressional District. This is the seat Carrie Buck is running for. And so far, she has said almost nothing about it. That is a mistake.
A Fight Tailor-Made For A Republican Candidate
Every value a limited-government conservative holds dear is sitting right in the middle of this story:
A private developer tried to route around local control. A federal agency in Washington overruled a small town's wishes without so much as a public hearing. Boulder City's own government had to vote to formally appeal a decision made almost 3,000 miles away in an Interior Department office.
If “Washington doesn't listen to us” isn't a conservative message, nothing is.
This should have been an easy call for Buck. Stand with the town, a conservative stronghold in her district.
Demand the BLM answer for cutting the public out.
Say plainly that federal permitting reform should never mean steamrolling a community that just spent months trying to be heard.
Instead, the loudest voice on this issue so far has been Dina Titus, the Democrat Buck is trying to unseat.
Titus Grabbed The Microphone
Titus fired off a letter to BLM leadership on July 8, demanding transparency and giving the agency a deadline to respond. Her office says she's drafting legislation on it. 
On Thursday, Titus sent a letter to Gov. Joe Lombardo asking him to pause state tax abatements for data center projects built on federal land until the 2027 Nevada Legislature can take a real look at the issue.
The project in question, near Boulder City, originally got approved as a solar and battery storage facility back in 2023. That approval came with a state tax break worth an estimated $24.3 million over 20 years.
Then the developer swapped the plan to a data center instead.
Titus wants to know whether that tax break should still apply to a completely different kind of project. It's a fair question, and it's the governor's call to make.
Lombardo's office had not responded to media requests for comment as of Thursday afternoon.
An Audition Buck Skipped
Whatever you think of Titus, she read the room correctly. She saw an issue where an entire town, Republicans and Democrats alike, was furious at an unaccountable federal process, and she showed up.
That's the part that should bother Buck's campaign most: This was never a partisan issue.
Residents fighting the data center weren't organizing as Republicans or Democrats. They were organizing as neighbors who didn't want a decision made about their water, their power grid, and their quiet little town without being asked.
Those are exactly the voters campaigns spend millions of dollars trying to reach: people who don't usually pay attention to party labels but show up furious when government stops listening to them.
Congressional campaigns are auditions. Voters aren't just picking a party. They're asking, will this person notice when something like this happens in my backyard, and will they say something before it's over?
Boulder City was Buck's chance to answer that question in front of an audience that was already watching closely. She's letting the moment pass.
Boulder City's fight is technical, tangled up in BLM permitting law and old right-of-way grants from six years ago. A candidate could reasonably want to understand the details before wading in publicly. Silence can sometimes be caution.
But caution has a shelf life. This story has been building since April. That's plenty of time for a campaign to put out even a short statement backing the town's right to be heard.
What Happens From Here
Boulder City voters decide Question 1 in November, the narrower ballot measure about future data center land use. The city's Interior Department appeal is still pending.
And Buck still has time to say something before Election Day arrives. If her campaign wants Boulder City's trust, and the crossover votes that come with it, silence isn't a strategy. It's a missed opportunity that Titus has already started to cash in on.
If you're a Boulder City resident who wants your would-be congresswoman to weigh in, her campaign's contact information is public. Sometimes the loudest message conservatives can send a candidate is simply asking her where she stands.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
