If there is one issue that seems to activate all kinds of voters in 2026, it is data centers — and the data center backlash is now uniting Americans across party lines, turning the massive server facilities into a major issue in congressional and gubernatorial races.
Data center (Credits: The Verge)
The rapid buildout of these huge storage facilities, along with the infrastructure construction and costs that come with them, has sparked local opposition in communities across the country. What began as neighbourhood complaints about noise, water and power use has now become a defining theme of the midterm elections.
At the same time, tech money is pouring into many of these races. Leading the Future, a super PAC backed by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, has already spent $45 million in a year. Public First Action, an Anthropic-backed group that says it supports AI safeguards, says it has raised $80 million. Both have funded Democratic and Republican-aligned groups.
Data Center Backlash Splits Candidates on a Moratorium
Other groups see an opening to push for stricter AI policies. The recently created Tomorrow Together has launched $4 million in ads for battleground House races, with messages about data center development and AI safety.
Faced with that pressure, all sorts of candidates are distancing themselves from data centers and trying to reassure voters about unconstrained building in their backyards. How far they are willing to go varies. Many Democratic candidates seem likelier to back a pause, though that is not always the case, while some Republicans prefer local control over a ban — and others say a pause is exactly what the moment demands.
One race even comes down, in the words of one observer, to “people who hate data centers” versus “people who hate them even more.”
Texas Becomes the Centre of the Data Center Fight
Deep-red Texas, which has the second-highest number of planned data center projects in the country after Virginia, shows how the issue cuts across party lines. Democratic and Republican candidates there are all trying to look tough on data centers, while emphasising different messages.
In the Senate race, Democratic candidate and State Representative James Talarico focuses on environmental impact and sharing corporate profit with the public. Republican candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, meanwhile, stresses keeping Chinese technology out of US data centers. Both, however, want data centers to bear their own energy infrastructure costs and to lose certain tax exemptions.
In July, Talarico unveiled his “Hold Data Centers Accountable Plan,” which would end state sales tax incentives, give communities more say in development, require closed-loop water systems in new data centers to limit consumption, and create federal standards to protect the energy grid and environment. He has also proposed an “AI Dividend” for Americans, funded by a tax on “AI-attributable profits.”
Paxton unveiled his “Texas First Data Center Plan” in August, backing Governor Greg Abbott’s state-level policies, including repealing sales tax exemptions, requiring data centers to pay for the electricity they use and add to state capacity, and preventing AI data centers from building in rural parts of the state. At the federal level, he says he would co-sponsor a bill making it easier for data centers to connect to off-grid power, introduce legislation barring Chinese technology from powering US data centers, and hold companies criminally liable if a facility “empowers AI chatbots that undermine children’s safety.”
The Texas race captures the wider mood: whatever their party, candidates now know that voters are watching what gets built next door — and who pays for it.
Also Read: Anthropic Filing Reveals Concerns Over Data Center Pushback; Anthropic IPO Filing Reveals AI Data Centres Are Burning Gas to Feed the AI Boom
Source: The Verge — read the full story there.
