US midterms: Data center proposals rejected in over 40 races across 13 states

Ballot Measures and Candidate Races

People across America rejected data centers during last night's midterm election. Proposals related to data centers were explicitly on the ballot in more than 40 races across 13 states. People voted against data centers in 38 of them and counting. Six cities voted to ban data centers outright, and 12 put limits on the amount of megawatts such buildings could draw. In addition to specific ballot measures, candidates who supported data centers lost across the country.

Texas: Abbott Defeated

One of the most striking repudiations of pro-data-center politicians was in Texas, where Greg Abbott lost a bid for a fourth term as governor. Abbott had made Texas a data-center-friendly place. The state has more than 300 working data centers, and there are plans to double that number.

"Texas is the epicenter of AI development," Abbott said in 2025 at a press conference with Google CEO Sundar Pichai. "We must ensure that America remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, and Texas is the place where that can happen." He went on to accept more than $9 million from data-center-related donors.

When public sentiment turned against data centers, Abbott attempted to ride shifting political winds by issuing a "pause" on new projects. The pause wasn't real. Texas regulators continued to approve data center projects after Abbott's announcement and only shut down the state's permitting web portal when 404 Media reported it.

Gina Hinojosa, Texas's Democratic governor-elect, made Abbott's stance on data centers a central part of her campaign. Abbott's words about making Texas a data-center-friendly AI state played on TVs and the internet over and over again. He lost by more than 700,000 votes.

Local Races Across the Country

Anti-data-center candidates overwhelmingly won statewide races across the country.

• Burgin, Kentucky: Mayoral candidate George Hensley lost his bid after voting to approve a hyperscale project—to a write-in candidate. Hensley was the only name on the ballot, and he lost to Joe Monroe, who ran an anti-data-center write-in campaign.
• Emporia, Kansas: The city—where police arrested a school teacher for clapping during a data-center-related city meeting—passed a ban on high-impact data centers.
• Yukon, Oklahoma: The mayor lost a recall election after he supported a hyperscale data center project.

Local Progress Statement

"These midterms sent a clear message—people don't want to see data centers in their backyards," Michael Whitesides, the deputy communications director for Local Progress, told 404 Media. "Across the country, people do not see the promised benefit of these data centers, and the AI they power, playing out in their daily lives. They're seeing basic goods and services get more expensive while these billionaire-backed monstrosities take up space in their community, poison their air, and drive up their utility bills."

Local Progress is a network of local elected officials. Over the past year, its members have become increasingly focused on data centers as a top political issue.

"Last night, we saw local, state, and federal officials who backed data center deals lose their seats," Whitesides said. He noted that Kim Rooney in Asheville, North Carolina, and Amanda Rodrigues in San Marcos, Texas (both members of Local Progress) were elected mayors in their cities after running anti-data-center campaigns.

"Big Tech will continue its typical playbook of trying to buy and bully local officials into complying with their demands for more data center development, but our hope is that last night's results are a clear signal to local leaders that they can resist and their community will back them up," Whitesides said.

Growing Opposition

American voters in the communities where data centers are being built hate data centers. They run up power bills, burn through water, and power Silicon Valley's AI apparatus. America rejected data centers last night as both symbols of the big tech oligarchy and a physical manifestation of the future it wants to build. It's a future Americans seem willing to fight.

Musk's Reaction

Elon Musk, one of the night's big losers, took a break from a weeks-long posting spree on X as the election results rolled in. Musk spent half a billion dollars on the midterms, $224 of it in Texas, the state where he lives and does a lot of business. The world's richest man wanted to cover the state in data centers. Those plans aren't looking good now that Abbott is out and Hinojosa is in.

Musk broke his election-day posting silence a little after 1 a.m. "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now," he said on X. Chased off the land by its people, the billionaire looks to the sky.