Data centers dominate House District 21 race between Thomas and Gorham

by Shannon Heckt, Virginia Mercury
October 21, 2025

In Northern Virginia, a closely watched House of Delegates race is centered on how candidates plan to rein in the state’s booming data center industry and meet its soaring energy demands.

House District 21, largely anchored in Prince William County, is currently held by incumbent Democratic Del. Josh Thomas, who faces a challenge from Republican Gregory Lee Gorham. Both candidates have made data center reforms a key campaign issue alongside other local priorities.

The district leans Democratic: most voters backed Kamala Harris in 2024 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. However, Gov. Glenn Youngkin carried the district with 51.4% in 2021, and the Virginia Public Access Project rates it as competitive. Thomas has a commanding fundraising advantage, raising more than $740,000 compared to Gorham’s $20,000.

Thomas, a veteran and commercial real estate attorney focused on housing issues, said he first ran for the House of Delegates to make housing more accessible and affordable in his community. He was first elected in 2023 and was drawn to run after seeing friends lose their homes due to economic challenges.

“I thought, well, during the last economic calamity I was in the Marine Corps and couldn’t really do anything about it,” Thomas said. “I’m a commercial real estate attorney in a position to do more, and so I said, ‘Yes, I will rise.’”

Gorham, also a veteran and a retired IT professional, has been an active member of the Prince William County GOP. He’s lived in the area for 25 years and is passionate about the history of the area and representing his community family in the area. He told the Prince William Reporter that he decided to ensure the district’s priorities are better represented in the General Assembly. Gorham did not respond to multiple requests from the Virginia Mercury for a one-on-one interview about his campaign.

“I think my constituents want to see accomplishments, not party-line platitudes,” Gorham said.

Data Centers

House District 21 is home to dozens of data centers. While the county benefits from the tax revenue the industry brings, residents have raised concerns about water use, high-voltage transmission lines, and facilities being built near homes and businesses.

During the regular 2025 session, Thomas sponsored House Bill 1601, which would have required data center applicants to complete a site assessment detailing expected sound pollution and projected water and energy demands for the high load facilities. Youngkin ultimately vetoed that bill. Thomas said his goal wasn’t to hinder the  industry but to set clearer guardrails for local communities.

“Other bills that I’ve had were trying to be more transparent about whether we’ll have the energy for data centers,” Thomas said. “Clean energy for data centers was not going to kill the industry at all. It was just going to make sure we’re doing something about the energy draw that data centers represent to our energy needs, no matter where you build in the state.”

Gorham said controlling data center sprawl is one of his top priorities. He argued that Thomas’ bill did not go far enough to make a real difference. 

“There are many other ways to force data center developers to make better proposals by making it more expensive not to make smarter proposals,” Gorham told a reporter. “Smarter tax laws, target industry tax overlay districts, choice of residential power suppliers, better environmental ordinance tools for localities to choose from, taking control from Richmond, need to be implemented.”

Thomas said he is in favor of changing the rate payer distribution system for data centers to ensure they are covering some of the infrastructure costs when it comes to transmission lines and the debate over if they should remain above ground or buried, which is a much more expensive option. 

Virginia Clean Economy Act

How to address Virginia’s energy demands — largely driven by the rapid expansion  of data centers — is expected to be a central topic in the next legislative session. Democratic lawmakers are seeking to strengthen the VCEA with additional support for wind, solar, nuclear, and battery storage. 

Thomas said that instead of changing the VCEA to ease constraints for certain industries, the focus should be on energy consumption to prevent strain on the grid.

“I don’t think the conversation around the VCEA is really that pertinent, because it’s the load that is the problem, and we need to start tackling the load so we can then figure out how we want to structure … constraining the load from the government perspective,” Thomas said.

Like many other states, Virginia faces challenges in accurately projecting energy demand for proposed data centers. Projects often enter the interconnection queue before financing or other requirements are finalized — and some never materialize — making long-term load forecasting more difficult.

Housing

Thomas said he wants to accelerate housing development across  the commonwealth to help ease Virginia’s housing shortage. He acknowledged that increasing housing density in some areas has raised concerns among some of his legislative colleagues, as has finding reliable funding amid federal cutbacks. 

“Some of these programs do cost state money to fund, whether that’s the housing opportunity tax credit, or whether that’s certain abatement programs that localities and the state could step in and help pay for that for housing construction,” Thomas said. 

“But I think that’s another place where, over time, has maybe contributed to this not being where it could be in the form of public private partnerships to create more houses.”

Election day is Nov. 4.

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