The open race for an Oregon House seat from The Dalles to Hood River is testing who should control data-center growth and its costs: local officials or the state. The debate has brought a political action committee attack site, six-figure campaign contributions and competing claims about tax breaks for tech companies such as Google into a contest between Republican Wasco County Commissioner Scott Hege and 25-year-old Democratic newcomer Hank Sanders. They are vying for the seat being vacated by Rep. Jeff Helfrich, who is running for state Senate after winning the district twice by slim margins.
An Open Seat in a Genuine Swing District
Oregon House District 52 covers Columbia River Gorge communities including The Dalles, Hood River, Cascade Locks, Corbett, and East Multnomah County, a stretch of politically mixed territory where Helfrich won with 52.5% of the vote in 2022 and just 51.8% in 2024, according to Columbia Community Connection. The district's voters break down as roughly 38% nonaffiliated, 30% Democratic and 25% Republican, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Hege has served as a Wasco County commissioner for 16 years and previously worked as executive director of the Port of The Dalles, while Sanders is a former journalist and legislative aide to state Sen. Lisa Reynolds.
Google began building its data center campus at the Port of The Dalles in 2006, the state's first such campus, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Its reporting says the facility now uses about 40% of the city's water supply. An OPB investigation published in January found that Google's annual water use in The Dalles rose 316% between 2012 and 2024, from 104 million to 434 million gallons, as the company's campus expanded.
A Water Agreement Alongside Rising Use
The city's records also reflect an agreement tied to its water supply: Google transferred water rights to The Dalles and provided money for water-system upgrades in exchange for an increased municipal water supply, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Sanders Calls for a Moratorium, Hege Digs In on Local Control
Sanders has called for a statewide data center moratorium of unspecified duration, a position Gov. Tina Kotek has echoed, per the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Sanders has said the pause is needed until complicated data center issues can be resolved. Hege, by contrast, supports keeping decisions about data center development, tax breaks and community investments in local hands, and he approved multi-million-dollar Google tax incentive packages over the last 15 years, including $50 million in property tax breaks this year and the sale of Port of The Dalles land to Google for data center construction, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle's reporting.
Hege has accused Sanders of flip-flopping, saying Sanders shifted from supporting data centers to calling for a moratorium. Sanders has pushed back, saying he has never called for tax breaks for data centers. A June 2025 podcast episode cited by the Oregon Capital Chronicle shows Sanders discussing tax breaks for small businesses and startups, including a proposed 5% lower tax rate for restaurants and subsidized law school and Oregon Health & Science University program costs; Sanders also floated free or subsidized office space for law firms, tech firms, startups and companies with at least 50 employees, saying the proposals would help offset office-space costs of $1 million a year.
An Attack Site, Big Donors, and a Contractor Connection
The campaign has also drawn scrutiny to the candidates' political and professional connections. A PAC tied to Hege launched hypocritehank.com and a campaign ad in August, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. Hege was vice president of Design Structures from 2005 to 2008; the firm was contracted to work on Google's data center buildout, the outlet reported.
Campaign finance figures compiled by the Oregon Capital Chronicle show Hege has received more than $450,000, including $8,000 from construction and contractors' unions and associations. Sanders has raised about $170,000.
State Lawmakers Are Already Rewriting the Rules
The local campaign fight is unfolding as state officials in Salem have already begun dismantling some of the tax breaks and utility arrangements that made Oregon attractive to data center developers in the first place. Christine Drazan attacked Kotek over having voted for industrial-investment property tax breaks, while Kotek criticized Drazan for voting against the POWER Act, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle. That law, HB 3546, requires data centers to pay for the energy they use.
The Oregon Public Utility Commission reported in September that implementing the POWER Act created a dedicated rate class for large energy users, producing an average 29% electricity rate increase for data centers in Portland General Electric's territory while residential customers saw an average rate decrease of 1.3%, according to the Governor's Office. Separately, Pacific Power reached a settlement with Oregon regulators and consumer advocacy groups this month requiring new data center developments to directly fund their own generation and transmission infrastructure costs, a deal pending Public Utility Commission approval scheduled for November, as reported by Eurasia Review.
A Statewide Reckoning Beyond the Gorge
Oregon's Legislature also enacted House Bill 4084 in June, placing a temporary moratorium barring new data center projects from accessing property tax exemptions under the state's standard Enterprise Zone program until 90 days after the 2027 legislative session adjourns, per Davis Wright Tremaine. By late 2026, data centers operating across Oregon accounted for nearly 25% of all retail electricity sold statewide, following years of tax breaks that saved tech firms over $450 million annually, according to the Corvallis Advocate.
Hoodline has previously reported on Pacific Power's new cost rules for data centers, as well as Gov. Kotek's September 8 executive directive ordering state agencies to halt unapproved leases, easements, permits, and sales of state-owned land for data center development through July 1, 2027. Municipalities including Hillsboro and Woodburn have also enacted local 120-day moratoriums on data center development this year, citing grid capacity and utility infrastructure constraints.
What Woodburn's Pause Covers
Woodburn's City Council voted on Sept. 14, 2026, to adopt a 120-day moratorium pausing the acceptance, review and approval of city permits and development proposals for new data centers, according to the City of Woodburn. That city-level action is distinct from the statewide moratorium Sanders has proposed.
Polling cited by the Oregon Capital Chronicle shows opposition to data center tax credits runs higher than opposition to moratoriums, and that most Oregonians support a data center moratorium. Portland-based DHM public opinion researcher John Horvick said candidates are using data centers to make broader arguments about affordability, a dynamic playing out directly in the District 52 race as Hege declined a phone interview for the original report.
