Midterm Voters in Four Data Center States Elect Foes of the Buildout

Voters in Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Arizona — four of the biggest data center states — elected candidates on Tuesday who ran against the industry's buildout, according to power-market analyst Rob Gramlich. The results land days before the Senate's first vote, on Nov. 9, on a permitting bill that would make data centers pay for the grid upgrades they require. That vote, a motion to proceed, needs 60 votes just to open debate, and Republicans hold only 53 seats until January.

AI and data centers ranked last of five issues in the NBC News exit poll, behind government corruption at 90% and cost of living at 89%. Even so, 56% of voters called the issue a crucial or major factor in their House vote, and 23% called it crucial.

What happened in the four states?

Gramlich, founder and president of Grid Strategies, a Washington consulting firm that studies transmission and power markets, said all four states elected candidates who promised to pause, limit or condition data center growth. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the governorship after pledging to halt data center approvals until the Legislature passes protections.

In Ohio, Sherrod Brown unseated Sen. Jon Husted by framing him as "the face of data centers," Gramlich said. Amy Acton, who opposed data center development, won the governor's race. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who backed a statewide moratorium, was elected governor.

Texas also faces a practical problem of scale. Large-load requests there total roughly 200 gigawatts, Gramlich said, more than double the grid's record peak of about 85.5 gigawatts. "There's literally no way to meet 200 gigawatts of new demand in Texas, for example. It's just not going to happen," he said.

Why are voters angry?

Alex Roark, founder and CEO of the American Innovation Policy Forum and former chief of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said voters are not deciding whether they are for or against AI. "It's really about how Americans feel about the concentration of power and influence over our lives into the hands of a few people," he said. Data centers make that abstraction physical, he added, and many arrived "behind non-disclosure agreements with zero community input."

Utah offered an early warning of the backlash. In June, Senate President Stuart Adams lost his Republican primary to Stephanie Hollist, 43% to 34%, after championing Stratos, a proposed AI campus of up to 9 gigawatts in Box Elder County, north of the Great Salt Lake. Backed by "Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary, the project would rank among the world's largest AI data centers, but residents feared it would drain scarce water and strain the grid. Adams, the longest-serving Senate president in Utah history and chair of the state body that approved early plans, became the first sitting Senate president to lose a primary in modern Utah history. Two Box Elder County commissioners who backed the project also lost.

Ohio hosted 21 of the 41 local data center measures on Tuesday's ballots, and at least 14 municipalities passed bans or restrictions. In Trenton, a small Butler County city between Cincinnati and Dayton, 80% of voters approved a charter amendment banning data centers that draw more than 25 megawatts, after neighbors gathered signatures following plans for a data center last year. In Oregon, Ohio, opponents of data center limits spent more than $300,000 without turning the tide, Roark said.

Who pays for the grid?

Data centers are "one of 20 things" raising utility bills, Gramlich said, alongside replacing grid equipment roughly 70 years old. "But they're kind of getting blamed right now," he said, noting that electric vehicles, heat pumps and electrified factories also add demand.

States are already shifting costs. Large-load tariffs — rate schedules making the biggest customers carry the costs they add — were pending or in place in 36 states as of March, according to the Smart Electric Power Alliance. After AEP Ohio's tariff took effect, the utility cut its large-load forecast from 30 gigawatts to 13.

Steve Haro, founder of Haro Solutions and a former chief of staff to Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., proposed going further with an Alaska-style dividend: "Everyone in this catchment area, we're going to send you 300 bucks a year to go towards your utility bills." The model is Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend, which since 1982 has sent residents a yearly check from oil wealth. Gramlich noted community benefits are hard to standardize because about half of data center developers are first-timers, many backed by private equity.

What does the Senate bill do?

The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act would make new data centers of 20 megawatts or more pay the full added cost of the power and wires built to serve them. It would cut the window for lawsuits over federal permits to 150 days, down from six years, and allow only groups that participated in public comment to sue. Federal reviews would face a two-year clock for a full environmental impact statement and one year for a shorter assessment, and the bill would give FERC more power to approve major interstate lines.

Power lines now take far too long, Haro said, citing the SunZia line, which carries New Mexico wind power to Arizona: it first sought permits in 2006 and began operating in April. "I'm not saying we need to speed things up and have things constructed within six months. That is completely unreasonable," he said. "But it should not take 20 years, a literal generation."

The House passed a narrower Ratepayer Protection Act 417-3 in September, with a 100-megawatt threshold states could decline; Senate Democrats blocked it 57-43 on Sept. 30. The current Senate language "has more teeth in it," Gramlich said. Haro counts at least seven Democrats needed Monday, while a coalition of 185 environmental, labor and community groups calls the bill a back-door deal for data centers. "We really only have the next few weeks to pass permitting reform or it won't get done," Haro said.

Haro called Tuesday "a massive repudiation of the president," with Democrats poised to hold at least 250 House seats — NBC News has since projected 258 — even though the party's approval stands at 29%. "They're leasing, not buying Democrats. They are dating, not marrying," he said. He expects AI to shape the 2028 race through household budgets and jobs, adding: "But right now, I don't think anybody has a good handle on that prescription." For Roark, the answer lies in a labor safety net, consumer privacy, digital connectivity and cybersecurity — "foundational building blocks of an effective American model for AI governance," and the question voters now force: "What does it mean for America to win the AI race if everyday Americans, if all of us don't feel like we're also winning as well?"