In May 2026, a family-owned nursery in Layton, Utah became the center of a national news story. Not because of anything the business did. Not because of a product failure, employee misconduct, a customer incident, or an internal scandal. But because its owner cast a controversial vote in his capacity as a state senator, and J&J Nursery had no plan for what would happen next.
The story of J&J Nursery and Garden Center is not really about AI data centers or Utah politics. It is a textbook case study in what happens when a business is caught without a crisis communication plan, makes a series of reactive decisions under pressure, and allows a manageable local controversy to escalate into a national news story. The lessons are directly applicable to any small or mid-size business whose owner, founder, or senior leader holds a public-facing role outside the organization.
The full timeline
The trigger
On a Monday afternoon in early May 2026, the Box Elder County Commission unanimously approved a series of resolutions to enter into an agreement with the Military Installation Development Authority, known as MIDA, to develop a proposed hyperscale data center campus near Snowville and Tremonton in rural Utah. The project, a 9-gigawatt facility described as one of the largest data center developments in U.S. history, had been the subject of intense public opposition for weeks.
State Senator Jerry Stevenson, a Republican representing Layton, sits on the MIDA board that approved the project. He is also the founder of J&J Nursery and Garden Center, a family business that has operated in Northern Utah for more than five decades, with over 100 acres and more than 200 employees.
Within hours of the commission vote, the connection between Stevenson's public role and his private business had been made publicly on social media. A boycott campaign began the same day.
The boycott
A post from the Instagram account @yardfarmer.co, captioned simply "Thank u, next" called on Utah residents to take their business elsewhere and included a list of alternative nurseries nearby. The post quickly gained thousands of likes. Within 13 hours of J&J Nursery's own social media response (which we'll go over soon), more than 700 comments had been left on the nursery's Facebook page, many from longtime customers saying they would not be returning.
The harassment of employees
The situation moved from online to in-person quickly. A longtime J&J Nursery employee told ABC4 reporter Bayan Wang that staff members had been harassed by members of the public, including a woman who entered the business and screamed at employees, nearly prompting staff to call the police. The 200-plus employees of J&J Nursery, most of whom had no involvement in or knowledge of Stevenson's MIDA vote, were bearing consequences of a political decision they had no part in.
The nursery's response
J&J Nursery posted a statement to social media on Tuesday evening, roughly 24 to 36 hours after the commission vote and the initial boycott call. The statement read in part: "We understand that recent public decisions have prompted strong feelings and concerns. While our owner is connected to a public role, we kindly ask that all interactions with our team remain respectful and considerate. Our employees are dedicated individuals who are here to serve you, and they deserve to be treated with courtesy at all times."
Comments on the nursery's Instagram posts were disabled, a decision that, rather than containing the conversation, drove it to other platforms and reinforced the perception that the business was unwilling to engage with its community. As of the writing of this case study, comments are still disabled on all their Instagram posts.
When the Salt Lake Tribune reached out to Senator Stevenson directly for comment on the boycott, he responded by text with two words: "No thanks."
The physical confrontation that changed everything
ABC4 reporter Bayan Wang and his photographer had traveled to J&J Nursery's parking lot to report on the employee harassment story, a sympathetic angle, notably, not an adversarial one. While Wang was in his vehicle, a man approached and began screaming at his photographer, who was outside the news vehicle without a camera. Senator Stevenson then approached Wang and physically smacked Wang's phone out of his hand.
Police were called. Before officers left the scene, they informed Wang that Stevenson had expressed that he was apologetic for his behavior. The footage of the confrontation circulated widely. What had begun as a regional Utah story about a nursery boycott was now being covered by national outlets including Tom's Hardware, The Hill, NewsNation, and the Western Journal.
The crisis communication failures
It is worth stating clearly: J&J Nursery was in a genuinely difficult position. The business was absorbing consequences for a political decision made by its owner in a separate public role. The employee harassment was real and wrong. There is no crisis communication strategy that makes that situation easy.
But the response made a manageable situation materially worse. Here is how, and why.
Failure 1: No separation strategy existed
Senator Stevenson's dual identity — state lawmaker and business owner — was not a secret, nor was it new. He has been a Senator for 16 years. The data center project had been publicly contentious for weeks before the final vote. There was ample time to prepare for the possibility that his vote would generate backlash directed at the business.
A separation strategy, a pre-drafted statement clearly distinguishing the business from the owner's political role, a briefed staff, a designated spokesperson, a customer service protocol for incoming complaints - could have been ready the moment the vote was cast. It was not. The business was forced to improvise in real time.
This is one of the most common and most preventable vulnerabilities for businesses whose owners or leaders hold public roles. The business and the person are legally separate. Communicatively, they need to be treated as separate long before a crisis makes that distinction urgent.
Failure 2: The statement addressed the wrong problem
The nursery's social media statement asked people to treat employees with respect. That message was entirely appropriate and morally correct. But it was the only message — and it left the far more pressing question completely unanswered.
The community was upset about the data center vote. They wanted to know whether J&J Nursery, as a business and a community institution, had anything to say about the controversy that had brought unwanted attention to its door. The statement did not acknowledge the community's actual concern at all. It asked for courtesy without offering any acknowledgment of why people were angry in the first place.
Effective crisis statements do two things: they acknowledge the source of concern, and they provide a path forward. This statement did neither. The result was that it read — fairly or not — as dismissive. And 700 comments in 13 hours reflected that.
Failure 3: Disabling Instagram comments silenced the wrong people
When the nursery disabled comments on its Instagram posts, the stated or implied goal was presumably to reduce the volume of negative engagement. The practical effect was the opposite. Disabling comments signals to an already skeptical audience that the organization is unwilling to hear from them. It does not make the conversation go away — it moves the conversation to platforms the business cannot see or moderate, while generating a new wave of criticism about the decision to shut down comments itself.
The customers who might have left supportive comments — longtime loyal patrons, employees' family members, community members who sympathized with the staff — were also silenced. In a crisis, your supporters need a place to speak too. Taking away the comment section removes your most accessible channel for organic community defense.
Failure 4: "No thanks" is not a media strategy
When Senator Stevenson responded to a Salt Lake Tribune interview request with "No thanks", he likely believed he was declining to engage with a story that would not benefit him. What he was actually doing was ceding the entire narrative to everyone else. In the absence of his perspective, every other account of the situation filled the void — the boycott organizers, the harassed employees, the community members leaving comments, the reporter he would later physically confront.
To be fair, declining media comment is sometimes the right call. But "no thanks" via text message, with no alternative statement, no designated spokesperson, and no coordinated message, is not a media strategy. It is an absence of one.
Failure 5: The physical confrontation was the crisis communication plan failing in real time
The reporter who arrived at J&J Nursery's parking lot was not there to investigate the nursery. He was there to cover a story about employees being harassed — which, if handled correctly, was an opportunity for sympathetic coverage. Employees being harassed at work for their employer's owner's political decisions is a story that generates public sympathy, not more outrage.
A business with a crisis communication plan in place would have had a designated media contact, a prepared statement for on-site media inquiries, and a clear protocol for how to handle a news crew on the property. Instead, Senator Stevenson encountered the reporter personally, in a state of visible frustration after days of mounting pressure, and made a decision that instantly became the top line of the story.
The physical confrontation did not create the crisis. It was the product of a crisis that had been allowed to compound, without a structured response, for several days. That is what unmanaged crises do. They escalate until something breaks.
What J&J Nursery should have done: a practical alternative
This is not armchair criticism. The following is a concrete, actionable alternative response — the kind of plan any small business can build in advance.
Before the vote: prepare the separation strategy
The moment it became clear that the MIDA vote would be controversial and public, J&J Nursery should have prepared a brief, clear statement distinguishing the business from its owner's political role. Something as direct as: "J&J Nursery is a family business with over 200 employees. Senator Stevenson's public service and his role at the nursery are separate, and our team is not responsible for decisions made in his capacity as a lawmaker. We ask that any concerns about public policy be directed to the appropriate elected officials." That statement, ready to post within minutes of the vote, changes the dynamic entirely.
Within hours of the boycott: acknowledge the community's actual concern
The nursery's statement focused entirely on employee treatment. A more effective statement would have led with acknowledgment of the broader issue before asking for courtesy:
We know that many of you have deep concerns about the data center project and about our owner's vote as a member of the MIDA board. Those concerns are legitimate and we understand why some of you are angry. J&J Nursery is a separate business — one that has served this community for more than 50 years — and our 200-plus employees show up every day committed to that. We ask that those of you who choose to express your views do so in ways that do not affect our team. They are not responsible for decisions made outside of this business.
That version acknowledges the source of frustration. It does not ask people to stop being upset. It just asks them to direct it appropriately. That distinction matters enormously to an audience that feels dismissed.
On Instagram comments: keep them open, monitor actively
Rather than disabling comments, assign one person to monitor the account and respond to comments with a brief, consistent message directing policy concerns to the senator's official channels and service questions to the nursery's customer service contact. Disabling comments should be a last resort reserved for genuine harassment or threats — not for critical opinions about a political decision.
On media inquiries: designate a spokesperson and prepare a statement
Senator Stevenson's "no thanks" response should never have come from him directly. A designated business spokesperson — not the senator — should have been fielding all media inquiries with a prepared holding statement. If the senator is not the right person to be engaging with media about this situation, that decision needs to be made before a reporter shows up at the parking lot.
On-site media protocol: have a plan for cameras on your property
If your business is in the middle of a public controversy, you should assume media will show up on-site. Who greets them? What do they say? Where are they directed? What is the policy if they are asked to leave? These are not hypothetical questions during a boycott. They are operational necessities. A calm, professional "We have a statement available through our communications contact — here is their information" is the entire protocol. It is not complicated. But it has to exist before the cameras arrive.
The lesson for every business with a public-facing owner or leader
J&J Nursery's situation is not unique. Across the United States, thousands of small and mid-size businesses are owned or led by people who also hold elected office, serve on public boards, lead civic organizations, or occupy other roles that expose them to public scrutiny. In every one of those cases, the business is one controversial decision away from being caught in the crossfire.
The question is not whether that moment will come. For many businesses, it will. The question is whether the business has a plan when it does.
A social media crisis, a boycott call, a local news inquiry — these are manageable. They are manageable because they have a known shape, a known timeline, and a known set of tools. A holding statement. A designated spokesperson. An internal staff briefing. A protocol for media on site. A decision about which platform to engage on and how.
None of those tools require a PR firm or a communications department. They require a plan — built in advance, documented, and practiced — so that when a Monday afternoon vote turns into a Tuesday boycott and a Wednesday news crew, your organization knows exactly what to do next.
Build your plan before you need it
The J&J Nursery story is a reminder that crisis communications is not a discipline reserved for large organizations with full-time PR teams. It is a basic operational necessity for any business whose owner, leader, or brand could become the subject of public scrutiny — which, in the current media environment, is most of them.
CrisisComs is built for exactly this. Create branching response playbooks for your most likely crisis scenarios — social media boycotts, media inquiries, owner-related controversies, employee incidents — so your team knows what to do, what to say, and who is responsible, before the situation forces the question.
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