Data centers have gone from economic‑development darlings to political hot potatoes as public opinion soured and many former advocates scramble to align with voters.
The candidates know all too well that voters are fed up with getting sky-high utility bills in their mailbox while energy-hungry data centers get generous tax breaks.
It is reshaping races from Texas to Ohio and Florida as candidates try to show they are protecting ratepayers.
The recalibration is moving fast in Texas.
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, surprised many when he announced a pause on new data centers so the state — now home to the fastest‑growing market in the country — can audit their energy and water use.
President Trump weighed in, telling Punchbowl News it was a mistake because “data centers could be bigger than oil.” The move created an unusual rift between the two Republicans and handed Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa an opening in her challenge to Mr. Abbott in the governor’s race.
Ms. Hinojosa has been reminding voters that Mr. Abbott signed a 2015 law giving data centers long-term sales‑tax breaks, and she’s pressing him to call a special legislative session to unwind it. She argues the pause should go further to set up stronger guardrails before more projects move ahead.
“The only way we can have any assurances that the people will be protected is if there is a moratorium until the legislature can meet and pass into actual law real protections for people,” she recently told NPR.
Data center industry consultants say all of this reflects a broader, fast‑moving national trend: elected leaders and voters across the country are demanding more transparency, tighter rules, and stronger guarantees that communities won’t subsidize massive, energy-hungry projects.
The promise of jobs alone no longer cuts it.
A Gallup Poll released earlier this year found broad resistance to new AI‑related data‑center projects. Seven in ten Americans oppose building them in their local area — nearly half strongly — while only a quarter are in favor, underscoring just how sharply public sentiment has shifted.
The industry isn’t sitting out the fight.
Between August of last year and the end of June, Leading the Future, a pro-AI network of super PACs, had raised nearly $76 million and spent $45 million, according to FEC filings. The spending went to rallying opposition to stronger AI regulations.
“Leading the Future is focused on building a broad coalition of lawmakers committed to getting AI policy right,” said spokesman Jess Hunt. “That means advancing a clear national framework that keeps America at the forefront of innovation, creates jobs and economic opportunity, prepares workers for the future, and establishes meaningful protections for children, families and communities.”
The issue has roiled races across the Midwest.
In Ohio, former Sen. Sherrod Brown has leaned hard into the issue as he tries to unseat GOP Sen. Jon Husted, arguing that Mr. Husted oversold data centers as a high‑tech win for Ohio while taxpayers have seen little benefit.
He cast Mr. Husted as “the face of data centers in Ohio,” running ads that highlight the tax breaks Mr. Husted supported as lieutenant governor.
“Jon Husted led the charge. He was the point man to bring these data centers to Ohio,” Mr. Brown said at a recent campaign stop. “He delivered giant corporations billions of dollars in sweetheart tax deals. Ohioans now pay thousands more on their utility bills.”
The strategy is a delicate balancing act for Mr. Brown and other Democrats. Trade unions have backed data‑center construction as a job creator.
Whatever the case, Mr. Brown’s data center attack on Mr. Husted is landing.
Internal polling shared by a Republican strategist showed that, while affordability remains the top issue, concern over data‑center construction has jumped from zero earlier this year to double digits in just six months.
The strategist described it as a rapid shift: “The momentum for this issue is snowballing.”
The Husted campaign said localities should decide whether data centers are a good fit for their communities.
They noted that Mr. Brown in 2015 praised the early data center expansion in his state, and that Mr. Husted has introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act that would make large data‑center operators cover the full cost of any grid upgrades and require utilities to secure financial assurances before moving ahead.
“Sherrod Brown had three decades in Congress to lead on this issue,” said Husted spokesperson Amy Natoce. “Instead, he did nothing and is suddenly pretending to care in the middle of an election year.”
The fight has spilled into the Ohio governor’s contest, where GOP nominee Vivek Ramaswamy has seized on the issue.
In a recent op‑ed, he pledged to eliminate electricity bills and slash property taxes for residents living in communities where data centers are being built, “while also ensuring that all environmental laws are respected and that farmland is preserved.” He said the issue is second only to property taxes, framing it as a pocketbook concern that’s gaining traction in parts of the state where construction has accelerated.
The issue went from a niche concern to the political front burner in the gubernatorial races in Florida and Nevada.
In Nevada, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo has backed tax breaks to lure the data centers and has said the state will shield consumers from associated costs.
His Democratic rival, Attorney General Aaron Ford, called for more regulation but resisted jumping on the full-moratorium bandwagon.
“Not only does he support a law requiring data centers to provide their own power — he plans to introduce legislation to do so,” the Ford campaign told the Nevada Independent.
At the same time, Mr. Ford distanced himself from a 2015 vote he cast in the statehouse that provided a partial abatement of certain taxes for new or expanding data centers, saying the bill was meant to spur job growth, but had some unintended consequences.
