The fight over data centers is suddenly at the epicenter of the midterm elections.
One new ad in Texas begins with someone typing into a chatbot, “Why is my electric bill going up?” Another in Ohio blames one of the state’s Republican senators for a proliferation of data centers, calling them “a total scam.” And in top House battlegrounds in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the Democratic challengers are all running ads against the server warehouses powering the artificial intelligence boom.
Data centers have become unlikely fault-lines in the broader fight over an A.I. revolution that is remaking the global economy and threatening to disrupt the job market. Now politicians are racing to tap into the backlash — or inoculate themselves — as political strategists in both parties described the issue as an unusually fast-moving force that is already reshaping races for the House, the Senate and governor’s mansions.
“It’s very much a bottom up, organic movement,” said Anna Greenberg, a veteran Democratic pollster, who said that while people’s views on data centers were largely tied to how close they live to them, the facilities were also becoming symbols of the excesses of Silicon Valley.
“Data centers are a physical manifestation,” she said. “Billionaires are building them, and it feeds into all of the big tech skepticism that is there. It’s very symbolic of everybody’s issues with A.I.”
There are signs that the emerging data center debate is scrambling the usual partisan divisions.
So far, Democrats have chiefly been the ones racing to harness voter anger about data centers over rising electricity prices, water use and mistrust of the tech sector. They aim to punish Republicans for cozying up to industry by approving many of these projects.
But in recent weeks, a growing number of Republican candidates have scrambled to shield themselves from any fallout. They have voiced skepticism about data centers, despite President Trump’s full-throated cheerleading for the A.I. industry and fears among party leaders in Washington that blocking construction of the centers could slow the economy and make the United States less competitive against China.
Some Republicans are now using
“data center” as an epithet, and casting themselves as the real opponents of corporate tax breaks and unfettered construction. Last week, Mike Rogers, the Republican running for Senate in the key swing state of Michigan, said that he supports a one-year moratorium on data center construction.
Polls show a revolt brewing against data centers. A
Gallup pollconducted in March showed 71 percent opposed local construction of the centers, and a summer survey from the
Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania showed that the number of people opposing new data centers in their areas had risen by 12 percentage points since February and March.
The fallout has been so swift that in some races, including the governor’s contests in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida, both Democrats and Republicans are airing television ads about data centers.
