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A group billing itself as a grassroots conservative movement against new data centers carried out a series of nationwide protests enlisting the help of Green Party figures and Democratic-aligned activists, a Fox News Digital review found.
Though initially launched as a bipartisan project, Humans First has since become — in its own words — a “conservative social movement that is dedicated to ensuring that the future of AI is in the hands of everyday people.” Humans First’s nascent movement was supposed to build up to mass protests on July 18, when the organization says it sought to rally conservatives against the construction of new data centers.
The push put Humans First in tension with one of President Donald Trump’s major economic priorities — accelerating the data-center buildout needed to power America’s AI race.
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While right-wing activist Amy Kremer is the public face of Humans First, the group’s paper trail shows that the organization didn’t start with her or even another conservative. Incorporation records reviewed by Fox News Digital list staffers from the Center for AI Safety, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, as Humans First’s initial employees. The Center for AI Safety also provided a loan to Humans First to serve as start-up capital, NBC News previously reported.
In a similar vein, several of the local organizers named on Humans First’s website as planning the July 18 protests had backgrounds in left-of-center politics.
“I was one of the earliest leaders of the Tea Party movement in 2009, and I can tell you that the disconnect between the elites and the base that gave rise to the Tea Party movement can be seen today in the battle over AI data centers,” Kremer, chair of Humans First, told Axios in June.
During the Obama administration, Kremer was a top Tea Party activist and, more recently, she was one of the organizers of the “Save America” rally that preceded the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — a role that later became a focal point during her unsuccessful 2022 run for a Georgia congressional seat.
Her group says the July 18 protests were meant to “give grassroots Americans, particularly grassroots conservatives, a voice in the critical debate over policies relating to the building of massive AI data centers.”
Despite Kremer’s GOP bona fides and her stated goal of mobilizing conservatives, Fox News Digital found that several listed protest organizers had left-wing, Green Party or Democratic-aligned backgrounds, including a transgender Green Party House candidate, local progressive activists and a Democratic state legislative candidate.
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At the bottom of the Humans First webpage advertising the protests, the organization stated that the events it is promoting have not “necessarily” been “fully vetted or endorsed by Humans First.”
Humans First’s website listed a chapter of the Illinois Green Party as organizers for a protest just outside Chicago.
Among other causes, the Illinois Green Party supports solidarity with Cuba, divesting from Israel, expanding abortion access, decriminalizing prostitution, restricting gun laws and impeaching Trump.
Also affiliated with the Illinois Green Party is Alexandria Keating-Sofiakis, a transgender activist and congressional candidate who organized a separate Humans First protest about 50 miles north-west of Chicago.
Kremer has repeatedly posted critical social media messages about transgender issues, Fox News Digital found.
Keating-Sofiakis’s campaign website lists support for the Green New Deal, expanded abortion rights, ending American support for Israel and Medicare-for-all. Though the two disagree on much, Keating-Sofiakis told Fox News Digital that opposition to data centers transcends traditional ideological boundaries and made working with Kremer feasible.
“Data centers are a cross-partisan problem,” Keating-Sofiakis said. “From a conservative worldview, the drop in property values, increase in water costs, as well as increase in electrical costs that are affiliated with data centers are all antithetical to conservative values. Likewise, from a progressive worldview, the ecological damage alone associated with data centers is more than enough justification to oppose them.”
Keating-Sofiakis also pointed out that local Green Party activists received support from prominent conservatives such as Tomi Lahren and Lara Trump in a recent effort to free dogs from a medical facility.
“I am no longer hesitant to work with conservative figures and organizations on issues we share in common,” Keating-Sofiakis told Fox News Digital.
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Humans First defended its conservative credentials when reached by Fox News Digital.
“First off, we are happy to put our grassroots conservative and America First credentials up against anyone. I was one of the founders of the Tea Party movement back in 2009, and I was one of the earliest and most high profile Trump supporters back in 2015,” Kremer told Fox News Digital. “The men and women on our team are long-time conservative activists who have dedicated their lives to electing conservatives and fighting for conservative policies.”
Most of the official staff listed on Humans First’s website have spent a significant portion of their careers working in conservative politics.
“This line of attack is preposterous but not surprising. This is exactly the same line of attack we saw during the early days of the Tea Party. The establishment and their handmaidens in the media were willing to smear Tea Party activists as racists and bigots in their effort to defend the big interests of their corporate masters,” Kremer continued. “Instead of questioning our conservative credentials, how about asking how any so-called conservative can take money from the same big tech and big AI billionaires who have worked tirelessly to destroy the conservative movement over the last ten years.”
Fox News Digital obtained footage of five Humans First protests across California, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina. Multiple demonstrators at the event in Gilroy, California, had signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a common antagonist for those on the left. Some of the protests were sparsely attended.
Nearly 1,000 miles south of its Green Party-linked protests in Illinois, Humans First’s protest page listed a Georgia activist group called People for Progress as the organizer of a local demonstration. The group was founded after the 2024 election to resist Trump’s agenda and protect “diversity, equity & justice.”
In Missouri, Humans First’s protest page listed the founder of CleanEarth4Kids as an organizer for a Springfield protest. CleanEarth4Kids has publicly urged followers to oppose several Republican-backed measures and support Democratic-backed bills. Ferguson Advocates for Civic Transparency (FACT), another group run by left-of-center individuals, organized an additional Humans First demonstration just outside of St. Louis.
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A press release obtained by Fox News Digital shows that the featured speakers at the event included a former Democratic state lawmaker, a current Democratic candidate for the state legislature and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Lady Huston, one of the organizers leading FACT, told Fox News Digital that Humans First hosted weekly Zoom meetings for its organizers and sent out regular mass emails with directions and suggestions for them. She, like the other left-of-center organizers working with Humans First, also stressed the opposition to data centers should be a nonpartisan issue.
“[Sen. Josh Hawley] is making statements and saying we need to do something about [data centers]. So, I never thought I’d care about anything this man had to say. But he is in tune with what’s happening with AI … and that we need some better understanding about the effects of data centers,” Huston told Fox News Digital. “So, I’m with him on that. You know, so it doesn’t matter to me what political party you are, but the subject is what matters.”
Back north in Michigan, Humans First listed Mitchell Distin, a Democrat running for state House, as an organizer for a protest, but has since removed that demonstration from its webpage. Fox News Digital reviewed a prior version of the page listing Distin before the demonstration was removed.
“While you are correct in your assessment that I am, by no means, conservative, the data center issue isn’t a left-right issue,” Distin told Fox News Digital. “It’s an issue without precedent, as it transcends party boundaries. And for that reason alone, I believe it’s showing that every day, common Americans actually have far more in common than they realize. We actually agree on the futures we want, not the futures that Big Tech execs want for us.”
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Not all the organizers who have signed up to facilitate Humans First’s nationwide protests are political liberals.
Cathy Latham, for example, is a longtime Georgia GOP official who is now working as a staffer with Humans First. She organized a July 18 protest in Waco, Texas. Latham was among the 18 defendants, including Trump, indicted in Georgia’s 2020 election-interference case.
Humans First claimed after July 18 that it had helped organize 142 protests across 42 states.
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Kremer, speaking to the Washington Examiner in May, expressed disgust with how AI companies have spent millions on lobbying and messaging campaigns to influence policy.
“I’m not for sale,” she told the Washington Examiner. “When I do something, I pour my whole heart and soul into it.”
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