Doug Jones has found his latest reason to tell Alabama to stop growing.

The Democratic nominee for governor is promising a one-year moratorium on new data center approvals, putting one of the fastest-growing sectors of the American economy squarely in his political crosshairs.

It is a revealing proposal.

When Republicans see billions of dollars in new private investment, infrastructure, and economic opportunity, we ask how Alabama can compete and win.

Doug Jones sees it and asks how quickly government can hit the brakes.

That is the fundamental difference.

Jones has promised that one of his first acts as governor would be to impose a one-year moratorium on new approvals for large AI data centers. His campaign says Alabama should stop and spend a year developing additional regulations, disclosure requirements, environmental studies, and government oversight before allowing more projects to move forward.

In other words, his answer to economic growth is a government-imposed timeout.

Alabama has seen this philosophy before.

It is the same old Democratic instinct that says government knows best, more regulation is the answer, and businesses should wait while politicians in Montgomery decide what comes next.

That is not how Alabama became one of the South’s great economic-development success stories.

For decades, Republican leaders have worked to make our state attractive to employers willing to invest capital, create jobs and build communities. Alabama competed for automobile manufacturers. We competed for aerospace and defense companies. We competed for advanced manufacturing.

We did not win those investments by hanging a “closed for business” sign on the state for twelve months.

And we should not start now.

Data centers are part of the infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and an increasingly digital economy. These projects can represent enormous private investment, expansion of the local tax base, construction activity, and major infrastructure improvements.

Doug Jones wants Alabama to step aside while other states compete for that investment.

Make no mistake: capital does not have to come to Alabama.

Businesses have choices.

If Alabama tells companies to come back next year, there are plenty of governors, mayors and economic-development officials in neighboring states who will gladly take their phone calls today.

Jones calls his approach a pause.

Businesses may call it a warning.

His campaign rhetoric is even more troubling.

Jones’s own data-center proposal says Alabama risks becoming a “dumping ground” for hyperscale data centers and repeatedly portrays these investments as something being forced on communities by wealthy corporations and politicians. His campaign has elevated data centers into one of the defining issues of his race for governor.

That language tells companies considering Alabama exactly how a Jones administration could view them: first with suspicion and then with regulation.

Republicans should offer a vastly different message.

Come to Alabama.

Invest here.

Build here.

Hire here.

Become part of our communities.

And yes, play by the rules.

Nobody is suggesting that a data center should receive a blank check. Local officials should understand a project’s impact on water, power, and infrastructure. Companies receiving incentives should meet the commitments they make. Ratepayers should be protected. Communities should know what major developments mean for them.

But none of that requires Doug Jones’s statewide economic stop sign.

Responsible government can evaluate projects without shutting down an entire category of development.

In fact, that is what governing is supposed to be.

Jones’s proposal is particularly misguided because Alabama should be thinking about how to lead in the next generation of American economic growth, not how to retreat from it.

Artificial intelligence is not going away.

The only question is where that investment will occur and which communities will benefit from it.

Alabama should be competing for its share.

As president of the Republican Women of East Alabama, I want our children and grandchildren to inherit a state that competes aggressively for the jobs and industries of the future.

I want Alabama to be a place where innovators want to invest, businesses want to expand and young people can build careers without leaving home.

That requires leaders who recognize economic opportunity when they see it.

Doug Jones’s first instinct is a moratorium.

Mine is quite different.

Let’s establish clear expectations. Let’s protect taxpayers. Let’s make companies keep their promises. Let’s make sure Alabama communities benefit from the investment occurring in their backyards.

And then let’s compete.

Republicans understand something Doug Jones apparently does not: growth is not something to fear. It is something to manage wisely and pursue aggressively.

Alabama did not build its economy by waiting for permission from government.

We built it by welcoming people willing to invest here, work here and bet on Alabama.

A year-long moratorium sends precisely the wrong message at precisely the wrong time.

Doug Jones wants Alabama to put the future on hold.

Alabama should keep moving forward.

Donna Granberry serves as President of the Republican Women of East Alabama.