Photo: Ontariophotos / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
The AI data-center boom hit a wall at the ballot box Tuesday, as voters across the country approved bans and restrictions on the facilities and swept in candidates who promised to slow the industry’s buildout.
Voters in 10 states decided 41 local ballot measures on data-center development and sided against the industry in nearly every contest with results available, according to a CNBC analysis of Ballotpedia data; The Washington Post counted at least 38 jurisdictions approving bans or restrictions. The lone exception was Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected an added layer of review for industrial projects. In Wells, Maine, more than 80% of voters approved a retroactive 180-day moratorium, and several Ohio cities banned data centers above 25 megawatts outright.
The backlash reached the top of the ticket. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa won the governor’s race – the state’s first Democratic governor since 1990 – after campaigning on a moratorium on data-center approvals until lawmakers pass “real protections so Texans can have a seat at the table,” the Texas Tribune reported. Texas hosts roughly a quarter of planned US data-center capacity, and Jefferies estimates her proposed moratorium could put 13.3 gigawatts of announced projects at risk. She takes office Jan. 19. Democrats who campaigned on curbing the industry also won governors’ races in Ohio and Georgia, and in Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown ousted Republican Sen. Jon Husted after casting him as “the face of data centers.”
Voters told pollsters the issue moved them. Seventy-six percent of Election Day voters opposed data centers in their communities, according to NBC News exit polling cited by The Verge, and 56% called the facilities a crucial or major factor in their vote, a CNBC voter poll found. All told, nearly two-thirds of data-center capacity planned for 2028 could face delays, Axios reported, though most analysts don’t expect Democrats to block construction permanently.
The Hill’s energy newsletter framed the night as a “blue wave” crashing into data centers – the rare issue that moved votes up and down the ballot in red and blue communities alike.
JBizNews Desk | Washington
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