Voters Reject AI Data Centers Across U.S. In Midterm Ballot Defeat

Voters across the United States rejected artificial intelligence data center projects on election night in a major roadblock for the tech industry's expansion plans.

Election Results

Ballotpedia tracked 41 local ballot measures across 10 states that aimed to restrict data center construction in various ways. Voters opposed data centers in every single measure except for one in Harwood, North Dakota, where the city defeated a charter rule amendment that would have required extra review for industrial developments. Communities in California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, Nevada, and Wisconsin also voted on the issue. In a CNBC Voter Poll, 56% of voters said data centers were a crucial or major factor in their voting decisions, and Democrats ranked the issue higher than Republicans. Political races saw major upsets linked to the issue. In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Sen. Jon Husted after attacking him as the face of data centers. Ohio saw 21 local measures on the ballot and was named America's Top State for Business in 2026 by CNBC. The state hosts the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, where OpenAI secured 8 gigawatts of computing capacity in a project backstopped by Nvidia that could cost over $500 billion. The Ohio governor's race also flipped to Democrat Amy Acton, a physician, who defeated Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy after supporting a conditional moratorium on data centers requiring them to pay 100% of utility costs and use union labor. Wired reported that in New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas mentioned his opposition to data centers in his victory speech, drawing boos from the crowd despite the state having no large-scale data centers under construction. In House races in Ohio and Wisconsin, two separate Republicans whose opponents labeled them data center nicknames suffered losses. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott after blaming him for the rapid buildout of data centers. Wired noted that voters also elected Democrats Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia and put Cindy Holscher on the cusp of a potential win in Kansas, with all three candidates campaigning for moratoriums or regulations.

Industry Spending And Reaction

Silicon Valley spent record sums during the 2026 midterms, with 14 of the 20 largest donor groups backing Republicans almost exclusively, according to a CNBC analysis of Federal Election Commission records. Crypto, AI, and online gambling interests poured over $377 million into the election. Elon Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars this cycle but largely came up empty, writing on X that data centers in space are looking pretty appealing right now. Meanwhile, Wall Street's AI trade was already faltering in October as chipmakers and data center companies sold off over rising interest rates and overspending. Hyperscalers like Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on AI infrastructure, and all except Microsoft have turned cash flow negative in the process. Following the election, Democratic lawmakers immediately called for oversight. Rep. Greg Casar, the Texas Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the House Democratic majority must make protecting Americans from AI billionaires a top priority and demanded that tech CEOs testify under oath. Casar called the data center revolt an early tremor of a much bigger AI earthquake upending American politics.

Context

Data centers require immense amounts of electricity and water to power thousands of specialized computer chips running artificial intelligence models. Rapid construction in local communities has raised widespread concerns over strain on local utility grids, rising electricity bills for residents, and environmental impacts. This local friction has increasingly turned into a partisan political flashpoint as major tech firms push for massive regional infrastructure buildouts.