Tennessee officials Taylor and Pearson disagreed on data center policy directly affecting xAI's Colossus facility deployment timeline.

The two candidates vying for Tennessee's 9th Congressional District seat hold opposing views on a data center moratorium under consideration by the Memphis City Council.

Democrat Justin Pearson, a Tennessee House member, supports the moratorium and urged the council to pass it at its October 6 meeting. "Memphis is at the crossroads in its data center journey where we have an opportunity to achieve the transparency, accountability and regulations needed to protect residents from the pollution that is hurting our air quality, draining our water resources, and destroying our quality of life," Pearson said in a statement. He appeared at a Wednesday event with environmental justice activist Erin Brockovich. Pearson previously opposed the construction of xAI's Colossus facility.

Republican state Senator Brent Taylor, Pearson's opponent, pointed to testimony from a recent Memphis City Council meeting as evidence of no major air pollution problems in the xAI area. "We want to make sure all of our industrial customers, whether it's a data center or any kind of factory, that they're not polluting the air and the water that we use," Taylor told The Center Square. "So it's important to monitor them along with every other industrial user. But it's also important that we give facts and not mislead people."

Taylor argued that a moratorium would grant xAI a monopoly by applying only to new data centers while leaving ongoing operations unaffected. He sponsored legislation requiring data centers to either provide their own energy source or pay associated infrastructure costs. "My opponent voted against it," Taylor said. "It was the only bill regulating data center costs that came out of the General Assembly last year."

Under an agreement reached by Memphis leaders in 2025, xAI's Colossus facility received no tax breaks from the city or state. Instead, it commits 25 percent of generated tax revenue to communities within five miles of the site. The $3.3 million collected in fiscal year 2026 is allocated across nine projects, with the largest allocation—$1.4 million—directed toward home repair assistance and housing stability initiatives. An additional $500,000 is proposed to fund workers for neighborhood cleanup efforts.

The race unfolds in a newly reconfigured district after the state legislature divided the Memphis-based district of Representative Steve Cohen, a Democrat, prompting him to forgo reelection.