Woodford County in Kentucky has enacted a permanent, outright ban on data center development, following a Fiscal Court vote coordinated with the local governments of Midway and Versailles.
The Lexington Herald Leader reports that the ban followed a Woodford County Fiscal Court meeting on September 8, 2026. Woodford County Judge-Executive James Kay posted about the vote on Facebook, calling it a “clear commitment to what makes Woodford County one of the most special places on earth.”
Kay, interviewed by the Herald-Leader the Wednesday evening after the vote, said the ban came together in an unusual way: the county’s incorporated cities and the county government all agreed on identical banning language. He said there was little pushback, with rural and urban elected officials landing on the same approach.
“By taking this decisive step, Woodford County chose to protect our farmland, honor our farming families, and safeguard the quiet character of our countryside,” Kay said. “This isn’t about closing doors. It’s about holding the line for the community we treasure. Woodford County’s future is rooted in our land and water. Our future is farming.”
Kay said the community has an obligation to preserve “the same vibrant rural landscape, pristine waterways, and strong farming foundation that we enjoy” for those who come after. “We will not allow data centers to compromise our future,” he said.
The permanent ban builds on steps taken earlier this year. In June, the Woodford County Fiscal Court unanimously approved two motions: one directing the county attorney to draft legislation banning data centers outright, and another asking the county’s planning commission to consider similar regulations. That same month, the Versailles City Council, which governs the Woodford County seat, unanimously approved its own data center moratorium, running through Dec. 31, 2026. That measure bars the city’s planning commission and local government from considering any permits, approvals or project plans involving data centers. Versailles acted shortly after the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council took similar action.
Breitbart News previously reported that a mother and daughter refused a $26 million offer to buy the family farm to build an AI data center:
“Kick rocks and don’t come back,” Bare told the company’s representative after successfully revoking the agreements. She and her mother, self-described “country hicks,” have since become polarizing figures in the rural fight against AI infrastructure. Bare, 54, is nearly blind from diabetes. Huddleston is an 83-year-old churchgoing widow who walks with a cane. “One of us is blind and the other’s cripple,” said Huddleston.
The family’s land, first purchased in 1848, fed them through the Great Depression. Bare grounds her refusal in faith. “What I believe in is something called Jesus Christ, and he said to occupy, wherever you’re standing, you occupy until he returns,” she said. She also said, “I believe artificial intelligence will be the destruction of the human race.”
Finding the balance between AI’s potential benefits and its landmines, such as Silicon Valley’s approach of building data centers pushed through local government with NDAs, is crucial for all conservatives. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written his instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
Read more at the Lexington Herald Leader here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.