Voters reject data center limits in 40 of 41 ballot measures
A bipartisan backlash against AI infrastructure drove major shifts in Tuesday's midterm elections, affecting power costs and water usage across the country.
By Fatima Saleh ·
Voters across the United States rejected proposed limits on data center construction in 40 of 41 ballot measures on Tuesday.
According to Data Centers on the Ballot, an election monitoring project run by Redbud Consulting, only one town voted to oppose restrictions. That town is Harwood, North Dakota, which has a population of fewer than 800 people. The defeated measure there would have required independent reviews of large industrial projects before construction could begin.
The results suggest that concerns about data centers have become a bipartisan issue tied to the cost of living. A poll conducted in September found that 70 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans supported limiting new data center construction. Analysts noted that the debate is intertwined with fears over job stability and rising energy bills.
Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at Tufts University, said the physical presence of these facilities in local communities drove the backlash. He noted that residents see data centers as the visible manifestation of artificial intelligence. He added that competing for space on the electricity grid contributed to the sector's unpopularity. A 2026 working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas estimated that wholesale electricity prices rose by 6.9 percent as a result of data centers.
James Mercer, founder of Metro Colo Advisory, explained that voters push back when they suspect their own electric bills will cover the power needs of nearby facilities. He described a fast-growing local resistance that includes counties pausing new projects and zoning fights. Mercer said, "That's why local resistance has grown so fast: counties pausing new projects, zoning fights and data centers turning into a ballot issue."
Several high-profile candidates made AI and data center development central to their campaigns. In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown flipped a key Senate seat by attacking incumbent Jon Husted's support for data centers. Ohio accounted for 21 of the 47 data center referendums held across the country in 2026. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated incumbent Greg Abbott for governor while calling for a moratorium on new approvals. Senator-elect James Talarico won his race in Corpus Christi by a 12 percentage point margin after pledging to increase regulation. The city had faced severe drought conditions, with its reservoir falling to 8 percent of total capacity earlier this year.
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won his Senate race with more than 52 percent of the vote, calling for a federal agency to oversee the AI industry. With Democrats poised to control both chambers of Congress, lawmakers plan to use oversight committees to investigate AI malfeasance. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts pledged new probes would be on the way. He wrote on social media, "They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we'll be printing."
Tech companies have responded to the election results with new proposals. OpenAI published a framework titled Setting a New Standard for Responsible AI Infrastructure. The company pledged to prioritize closed-loop or low-water cooling and to pay its own way on energy and infrastructure. Days before the election, OpenAI sought to rebrand its data centers as compute campuses. On the stock market, chipmaker Nvidia lost $450 billion in market value on Thursday. The company rebounded on Friday, gaining 4 percent in early trading, though it remained down 6.8 percent over the previous five days.
