Democrat Crowley wins Wisconsin governor's race on renewables-friendly platform

Wisconsin voters elected another Democratic governor as Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley won the race to succeed Tony Evers, who opted not to seek another term.

The Associated Press called the race for Crowley at 11:28 pm ET Nov. 3. Crowley led Republican Tom Tiffany 53.3% to 46.7% with 88% of the statewide vote counted.

Crowley ran on a platform emphasizing energy affordability and support for clean energy. He proposed that the Wisconsin Public Service Commission be required to deploy at least 3 gigawatts of new battery storage by 2035 and to prioritize renewables over fossil fuel plants.

Crowley has called for a "public-interest review" for new fossil fuel infrastructure. The review would weigh projects' climate impacts and other environmental risks.

Regarding data centers, Crowley wants the facilities to pay all their grid upgrade and interconnection costs and to commit to sourcing at least 70% of their power from renewables to qualify for state and local tax benefits. He has not thrown his support behind calls for a moratorium on all new data center construction.

On the campaign trail, Crowley toughened his stance on Wisconsin's sales tax exemption for data centers. After initially showing reluctance to support eliminating that incentive, he later vowed to sign a repeal bill as governor. That shift came as Tiffany, a member of the US House of Representatives, made ending all state subsidies for data centers a part of his platform.