One of Donald Trump’s personal super PACs is pouring $4 million into Michigan’s Seventh Congressional District in an effort to save one term Republican incumbent Tom Barrett from progressive Democrat Will Lawrence.

The money comes from the new Safety & Affordability PAC, formed last month with a $25 million transfer from Trump’s MAGA Inc. committee. The group was created to target close congressional contests, and its Michigan spending will finance a barrage of attack ads against Lawrence.

Data from the platform AdImpact indicates that more spending could follow because the PAC has placed ads that will require additional funding before Election Day. Polls from the past couple of months have shown Lawrence building a lead.

The contest has already surpassed $60 million in advertising purchases for the two candidates, making it the most expensive House race of the cycle. Trump’s late intervention adds another flood of presidential PAC money to an already staggering total.

Lawrence, a climate activist and tenant organizer backed by the Working Families Party, emerged as an unexpected force during Michigan’s primaries. He defeated two favored candidates of the Democratic establishment, a former ambassador and a Navy SEAL, by 15 points.

His campaign focused relentlessly on blocking data center construction, an issue that has angered voters across the political spectrum. The position has even attracted some occasional Trump voters to Lawrence’s campaign.

Last month, Lawrence released a four page white paper titled the “Stop Tech Overreach Plan.” It connects data center expansion with economic, environmental, and quality of life problems facing the public.

“AI development is out of control,” the plan reads. “Tech billionaires are bulldozing towns and farms to build data centers to make themselves even richer. They’re threatening Michigan jobs, driving up our energy costs, and contaminating our air and water.”

The proposal calls for pausing data center projects and secretive advanced AI development. It also proposes a national jobs program funded by taxes on AI company profits, access to Social Security for workers displaced by AI, and restrictions on AI use in schools.

Lawrence also proposes a category of “humans only decisions” for ethically sensitive areas including war, courts, and medicine. His opposition to data centers has become especially potent against Barrett, who voted for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which included billions of dollars in data center tax breaks.

Barrett has nevertheless tried to blunt Lawrence’s advantage on the issue. In late August, after Lawrence won the primary, Barrett introduced legislation presented as an effort to restore local authority over data center construction.

Barrett also ran summer advertisements claiming that he had opposed his own party and voted against giving tax dollars to data centers. That vote came in 2015, when Barrett served in the Michigan state House, and involved tax cuts containing a local opt out provision.

Barrett has also sought distance from Republicans over the Iran war. After voting against an earlier measure to end the military campaign, he joined House Democrats in passing war powers resolutions asserting Congress’s constitutional authority to declare war, though those resolutions failed to clear the Senate’s 60 vote cloture hurdle.

His declarations of independence now collide with millions of dollars in spending from Trump’s personal super PAC. “Clearly Donald Trump and his allies want to buy Tom Barrett’s loyalty in office,” said Ravi Mangla, press secretary for the national Working Families Party.

Trump’s PACs have also spent more than $10 million against Florida Democrats Pia Dandiya and Kathy Castor, who are running in districts redrawn by the state legislature to favor Republicans. Both candidates held modest leads in the latest polling.

The PACs have targeted Arizona Democrat Amish Shah, who led a recent poll by three points, and Maine Democrat Matthew Dunlap. Spending against Dunlap increased from less than $28,000 last month to nearly $4 million this month in a district Trump carried by ten points in 2024.

Lawrence stands apart from those other targets because he is neither seeking an open seat in a district Trump carried by ten points nor defending against a Florida map drawn for Republicans. His campaign has paired opposition to corporate PAC money with attacks on AI expansion and data center construction.

“Will Lawrence is unique in that he is one of a handful of folks around the country who are rejecting corporate PAC money as well as speaking out against AI and data centers,” Mangla said. Barrett’s campaign and a representative of Trump’s super PAC did not respond to requests for comment.