AI Data Center Opposition Celebrates Midterm Wins, Vows Continued Fight

Following the recent midterm election results, opponents of AI data centers are expressing elation, viewing the outcomes as a significant victory for their movement. However, they emphasize that the struggle against the rapid expansion of these facilities is far from over.

Maggie Elizabeth Hill, a resident of Texas and founder of the data center watchdog group Don’t Drain Texas, stayed up late to monitor election night results. The following morning, she was already strategizing with newly elected Democratic leaders in the state to curb AI data center development. "I was so excited with the results," Hill stated, highlighting her proactive approach to engaging with officials like the lieutenant governor to identify pathways for success.

The proliferation of AI data centers emerged as a critical issue in the lead-up to the midterms. Grassroots campaigns across the nation voiced concerns about the local impacts of large-scale AI data center projects. This resistance also reflected a broader distrust of AI and discontent with the immense power and wealth concentrated in the hands of tech billionaires.

Like Hill, data center opponents nationwide perceive the recent election results—which saw a surge of populist Democratic candidates winning even in traditionally Republican areas—as a validation of their cause. They believe that voter concerns regarding AI data centers increasing electricity costs, environmental harm, and diminished local quality of life motivated community members to participate in the elections. A CNN Voter Poll indicated that approximately a quarter of American voters considered AI and data centers crucial to their midterm voting decisions, with voters opposing data center construction in their communities by a margin of roughly 3-to-1.

Despite these wins, data center opponents are resolute in their ongoing efforts. Their next steps involve holding newly elected officials accountable for campaign promises to regulate or implement new safeguards for data center construction, or to advocate for even stricter measures. While many are pushing for moratoriums on data center construction, others seek increased transparency and greater benefits for local residents as part of the development process.

"I am an independent, and I definitely voted with… data centers at the top of my list, and I know so many people who are from rural communities who traditionally vote Republican who said that this was flipping them," Hill told CNN, underscoring the bipartisan impact of the issue.

A Key Election Issue

Several candidates, including Democratic Sens.-elect Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Annie Andrews of South Carolina, achieved success in competitive races by centering their campaigns on the data center issue. In Texas, Democrats secured a significant upset in the state's high-profile Senate race and unseated Republican incumbents for governor and lieutenant governor.

"When the politicians stop speaking for the people or being responsive to the people, you’re going to see a recalibration, and I believe that happened certainly" in the midterms, commented Nick Owens, an attorney and founder of Conserve Ohio, a group opposing large data center construction. Owens, a lifelong Republican and former delegate for President Donald Trump, asserted that Democrats were far more effective in addressing voter concerns about data centers leading up to the election.

Conversely, GOP candidates faced challenges linked to Trump, who has previously dismissed data center concerns as a "hoax" and suggested that communities opposing them harbor a desire to remain "backwards and poor."

In Ohio, Democratic Gov.-elect Amy Acton campaigned on a "conditional moratorium" for data center development, which would mandate that developers cover energy generation costs and commit to transparency measures, among other requirements, for project approval. However, Owens indicated that his group would advocate for more stringent measures, drawing inspiration from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s one-year moratorium on new AI data center construction in her state. He also expressed optimism about Brown's potential contribution to federal legislation concerning data centers, given his prior Senate experience.

‘Our Fight Doesn’t Change’

Activists nationwide are opposing data centers primarily to preserve local land and natural resources. This motivation drives Nancy Thellman, whose family farm in Douglas County, Kansas, is situated approximately 15 minutes from a proposed hyperscale data center project.

"We have people who are trying so hard to keep their farms, to keep their skills, to keep the next generation on the farm, so that food can be grown," Thellman explained, expressing concern that "data centers coming in and taking vast swaths of prime farmland out of production for a purpose that is not entirely understood or known for the future."

Thellman and her group, the Douglas County Data Center Watchdogs, are hopeful that the election results in Kansas will strengthen their efforts to persuade state legislators to revise or repeal the controversial State Senate Bill 98, which grants tax exemptions to data center developers. Kansas recently elected its first Democratic senator in over 90 years, alongside a Democratic attorney general. Democrat Cindy Holscher is currently leading in the gubernatorial race as final votes are tallied.

Holscher, a former state senator, was among those who approved Senate Bill 98. However, Thellman reported that a campaign call from the gubernatorial candidate convinced her that Holscher's views on the issue had evolved. Holscher's campaign website advocates for a pause on data center development until adequate safeguards are established, stating that "big corporations don’t deserve taxpayer handouts."

"She saw the error in that vote, and she made it very clear that should she be governor, she would place a statewide moratorium on data center development until reasonable guardrails could be put up," Thellman stated. "She was a politician who is brave enough and wise enough to change her mind and promise to legislate in a different way… We’ll hold her to it."

Danielle Ray, lead organizer for the Louisville, Kentucky-based advocacy group No Data Center 502, told CNN that "our fight doesn’t change" despite Democrats flipping nine seats in the statehouse. Her group is actively working to halt a proposed data center project exceeding one million square feet in the city.

"I believe that this has been part of the reason that some of the seats have been flipped in Kentucky," Ray commented. "But I think our concern is that it might cause folks to relax or think that the fight is over just because you know Democrats won (the) majority across the country."