How the US midterm elections reflected resistance to data centres
Summary
Voters rejected or sought limits on data-centre development in nearly all of 41 related measures in the 2026 midterm elections, according to an election-monitoring project. The debate crossed party lines as voters raised concerns about electricity bills, water use, AI-driven job changes and local impacts.Key Facts
- A September poll found that 70 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans supported limiting new data-centre construction in the United States.
- Data Centers on the Ballot reported that voters were on track to reject data-centre development in all but one of 41 measures; two contests were still being counted.
- Harwood, North Dakota, was the only place reported to have voted against limits on data centres. Its rejected measure would have required independent reviews of large industrial projects.
- The Pew Research Center estimated in April that the United States had 3,000 data centres, with more than 1,500 others in progress.
- The article links the construction boom largely to growth in the artificial intelligence industry.
- A 2026 working paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas estimated that data centres had raised wholesale electricity prices by 6.9 percent as of 2025.
- Ohio had the largest share of data-centre ballot measures, with 21 votes among 47 referendums and measures nationwide in 2026.
- Democrat Sherrod Brown won a key Senate seat in Ohio after making incumbent Republican Jon Husted’s support for data-centre development a campaign issue.
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