State AGs Target Antitrust, Data Centers and Healthcare in Expanding Enforcement Push

Democratic state attorneys general are stepping in to fill an enforcement vacuum left by federal regulators, aiming to take a leading role in antitrust, healthcare, energy policy, and data center development, as Benesch writes in a recent alert.

Interviews with sitting AGs and candidates signal where this expanded state-level action is headed.

Two main drivers are behind this shift: recent Department of Justice antitrust settlements that critics say favor corporate interests over career staff recommendations, and the loss of Democratic Federal Trade Commissioners (FTC) commissioners after Supreme Court-upheld removals.

To catch anti-competitive deals before they close, state AGs are expanding enforcement staff and tightening premerger rules, particularly across healthcare, veterinary medicine, and other consolidating industries. In healthcare, states are deploying false claims statutes, consumer protection laws, and Medicaid fraud units to pursue enforcement independent of federal authorities.

Concurrently, energy regulators are scrutinizing data center growth, debating clean power requirements, and actively fighting federal orders that keep aging fossil-fuel plants online—a strategy highlighted by Michigan’s recent court victory. Tribal lands are also drawing scrutiny as lightly regulated spaces for development.

In response, corporate counsel must adapt. M&A advisors should build state-level premerger timelines into deals regardless of federal thresholds, healthcare and private equity firms should reinforce compliance against state investigations, and energy and tech companies must treat state power and permitting policies as central to enterprise risk management.