Dan Bukiewicz is running for Assembly District 21 as the Oak Creek mayor who will crack down on data centers. That is the line on his campaign website, at least. “Crack Down on Data Centers.” Voters have every right to worry about power bills and water use. The question is why this particular candidate is suddenly leading with that fight in the hotly contested Assembly district.
Bukiewicz has been mayor of Oak Creek since 2017. He is also president of the Milwaukee Building and Construction Trades Council, a post he has held since 2014. The council represents more than 15,000 tradesmen and tradeswomen. He has negotiated more than $2 billion in project labor agreements and said he plans to keep the trades job if he wins a seat in Madison.
Last October, Vantage Data Centers and the Wisconsin Building Trades Council announced a joint pledge to build the $15 billion Lighthouse campus in Port Washington. The project is expected to need more than 4,000 skilled construction workers at peak and to use local union labor “to the fullest extent possible.” Bukiewicz was quoted in the announcement.
For reference, Port Washington became the flashpoint of Wisconsin’s data-center fight. Vantage’s $15 billion Lighthouse campus on the city’s north side, tied to OpenAI and Oracle’s Stargate buildout, was the first project big enough that every county in the state could see the scale: hundreds of acres, gigawatts of new power, thousands of construction jobs, and a mayor who suddenly had a recall campaign on his desk. By the time ground was broken in December 2025, “Port Washington” had become shorthand for the whole debate.
“Wisconsin has one of the most skilled and highly trained workforces in the country, and agreements like this prove it,” Bukiewicz said. “Every job created here means another opportunity for our local tradespeople to showcase their expertise and build careers right at home. When we invest in Wisconsin workers, we invest in Wisconsin’s future.”
That is a labor leader talking about a construction win and who is looking for more, not a candidate talking about a hotly contested political football.
That tone changed when the Democratic primary got real. Bukiewicz faced David Liners, a former priest and the state director of WISDOM. Liners ran hard against data centers and called for a one-year moratorium. He wanted a tighter grip on utilities and made the issue a test of whether Democrats would side with neighborhoods or with the next big project. It was not a token challenge either. Liners took about 43 percent on August 11. It was also close enough to force Bukiewicz to move away from his pro-development stance.
As mayor, he has sold growth as Oak Creek’s story. His campaign notes that the city is one of the fastest-growing communities in Milwaukee County and points to IKEA off Interstate 94. When neighbors fought the first Wisconsin Buc-ee’s at I-94 and Elm Road, city boards moved it forward. Bukiewicz told the crowd that change is pain, but that it would work out and be a benefit. Based on his history, Bukiewicz would probably say the same thing if a data center was coming into Oak Creek.
What does not add up is the sudden conversion. Bukiewicz built a career on development and union construction work. He praised the Port Washington jobs in print. He still runs the council that wants those jobs. A man who is pro-development probably hates having to campaign like this. Positions this settled do not reverse themselves in a few months unless the election is contested enough to demand it.
Assembly District 21 covers Oak Creek, a slice of southern Milwaukee around Mitchell International Airport, and a sliver of Greenfield. Current Republican Jessie Rodriguez is retiring, leaving this contested seat open. The general election is November 3. Bukiewicz faces Dylan Pfaffenbach, an Oak Creek resident and Carroll University student in his first race. Pfaffenbach did not have a primary scare, and he does not have a year-old quote calling a $15 billion data center campus an investment in Wisconsin’s future. Voters can decide which version of Bukiewicz they are being asked to hire.
