Data centers surge as midterms turn into fight

More than 200 data centers are being built across dozens of competitive House districts, and voters are turning those projects into campaign ammunition ahead of the midterms—fueling opposition over energy bills, water use and land pressures while regulators, c

By the time the first attack ad hits the airwaves, it’s already too late to treat data centers as a slow-moving local planning issue.

In dozens of competitive House districts. hundreds of new computing facilities are either planned or under construction to meet explosive demand for artificial intelligence—alongside a backlash that has spread through town halls. state legislatures and campaign advertising. The result is a political fight that neither party seems fully equipped to manage heading into the midterms.

The scale is part of the reason. An analysis of Data Center Map data by POLITICO finds that in the competitive districts that will decide who controls the House. data centers are not a distant storyline: 40 of the 69 competitive districts have data centers either planned or under construction. Even though Republicans represent most of those competitive districts, the politics are dragging on for both parties.

A broader measure shows why. The industry has roughly 1,500 data centers planned or being built in 232 congressional districts, with a nearly even partisan split. Yet the political terrain looks strangely unmapped: interviews with and statements from more than 20 congressional candidates. political strategists. and activists make clear that while individual campaigns are trying to shape their positions. broader party messaging is essentially nonexistent.

“There’s more political signs against AI in our region than for candidates in the upcoming races,” Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur said during a hearing this spring. Kaptur is fighting to keep her seat in Ohio’s 9th District. where Aligned Data Centers is building a data center that would be used for AI. cloud computing and more. “The public opposition that is arising, it’s spontaneous combustion coming up from the grassroots.”.

That “spontaneous combustion” is also colliding with a reality lawmakers can’t ignore: the energy-hungry computing infrastructure being built for AI is tied—directly in voter perception—to rising electric bills. water consumption. use of farmland and the influence of the tech industry. Dense developments in places like the Virginia suburbs and the industrial Midwest expose the issue to lawmakers far beyond any one region.

Some politicians are responding with hard stops. Others are leaning into the projects for economic development and national security. Still others argue the issue should be treated as local zoning. not federal or White House terrain—at the very moment the White House and Congress are trying to figure out how to regulate the buildout.

In March. the White House announced a non-binding agreement with technology executives who pledged that their companies would provide their own power for data centers as a way of limiting the economic blow to everyday consumers. Lawmakers have also introduced bills tied to similar goals. These include the GOP Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s GRID Act, Democratic Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam’s Data Infrastructure Risk Reduction Act, and a plan by progressives Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to enact a federal moratorium on data center construction.

Rep. Tom Barrett. a Republican whose Michigan district both parties’ congressional arms are targeting—where there are six data centers operating and six more planned—warned against Washington setting local precedent. “People should not want their member of Congress deciding local zoning decisions,” Barrett said. “It would be a dangerous precedent.”.

Outside campaigns, the fights are already spreading across ballots and city chambers. Data center proposals have sparked marathon city council meetings. scores of bills in state legislatures. and ballot measure campaigns to ban their construction in California. Michigan. Nevada. Wisconsin. Maryland. Utah and Ohio. In Ohio, residents are pushing to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November.

One Democratic strategist working on congressional races—granted anonymity to speak candidly—put it bluntly. “There’s not one big national message on this specific thing,” the strategist said. “But in certain districts, data centers are going to be a major, major player.”

The campaigns that do speak are doing it under pressure from what voters are already feeling. Utility bills are the clearest point of contact. The industry’s expansion requires grid upgrades that can be passed along to power consumers. Massive “hyperscale” facilities owned by major tech companies demand the most power. even though hyperscalers make up a relatively small portion of the facilities now operating—while the number in development would increase their count by 74%.

Politically, those costs are amplified by a financial reality: investors plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building new data centers, and the grid upgrades needed to feed them carry expenses that can land with everyone who uses electricity.

There’s also another threat: the opposition doesn’t always take the same path, and it doesn’t always fail.

Despite the demand for data centers, there are examples of proposals falling through due to community opposition or shifting business calculations. Just the announcement of a data center can be enough to pressure elected officials to act.

In Wisconsin, for example, Healthy Climate Wisconsin reports that four proposals have been canceled and one paused following local pushback. Abby Novinska-Lois. the organization’s executive director. said policymakers across the state tell her data centers are the top issue they hear about from communities. “Data centers will definitely be a factor in upcoming races in Wisconsin. and I would say they’re a factor already for those who are holding office in their decisionmaking. ” Novinska-Lois said.

How candidates react is now shaped by two forces that don’t always align: the promise of economic activity tied to development, and the anger voters feel about higher bills and environmental tradeoffs.

Among the 69 House districts expected to be competitive. nearly all already have at least one data center. and most have more on the way. POLITICO asked the 10 House members in battleground districts with the most upcoming data centers what their stance was on data center regulations. Five of eight Republican incumbents and one of two Democrats responded.

Their answers reflect a shared political calculation: voters are not in the mood to greenlight anything that sends electricity bills higher. Even incumbents who are supportive tend to condition that support on consumer protection.

Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn. whose district has 31 data centers planned and 33 already operating—more than any other Republican incumbent in a competitive race—said in a statement that his state is a “model for how workforce development and AI leadership can work hand in hand.” He added. “But I also hear from Iowans who don’t want higher utility bills or sweetheart deals for out-of-state tech companies. he said. “And they’re right to be cautious.”.

Yet candidates who appear too close to Big Tech risk losing support from voters—and potentially money from the tech lobby.

Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas-based GOP consultant whose clients have included Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, described the bind. “They’re between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “Politically. it’s not a very smart move to come out and be seen as too close to big tech or doing the bidding of Big Tech. but a lot of the money is flying to them through that.”.

The advertising so far this election cycle follows that pattern. Using the political advertising tracker AdImpact, all of the congressional and gubernatorial ads that mention data centers identify the facilities as a target. Most attack Republicans for supporting them.

One progressive ad from Priorities USA PAC. shown over an image of cables running from computer equipment. says: “Driven by higher demand for electricity from AI data centers. residents can expect to see a 3% increase in their electric bill. But Pennsylvania’s Representative Scott Perry somehow believes we’re winning the war on high prices.”.

Perry. a Republican. told POLITICO he does not support data centers in his district. which includes the cities of Harrisburg and York. “I don’t think it’s the best place for it, quite honestly,” he said. “Pennsylvania’s got a lot of energy in the ground. and the data center to me should be right at this point of energy production and generation. which is kind of in the more rural parts.”.

Democratic messaging, too, is leaning hard on prior regulatory records. Ads from Democrats, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, highlight their own records of regulating data centers. Democrats scored some early wins on energy affordability messaging last November. when their candidates won Virginia and Georgia—promising to place guardrails on data center growth and ensure they pay their share of power costs.

Environmental groups are also pushing the same affordability link. The League of Conservation Voters launched similar ads targeting Virginia’s state legislature incumbents and their data center interests in 2025. and those races were later won by candidates who positioned themselves against data centers.

Sara Schreiber. the group’s senior vice president for campaigns. called the advertisements a tool for connecting data centers to rising costs. “There is continuing concern around folks’ rising electricity costs,” Schreiber said. “They want to support candidates who are showing that they understand. they want to fight against it and have a plan to do so.”.

Still, Democrats up and down the ticket aren’t uniformly against construction. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced requirements on May 27 for data center developments—including a plan for covering energy costs—but not a moratorium.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, Paige Cognetti, the mayor who is running to unseat Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, said “we are ready for development,” while insisting data centers should be placed on former industrial sites rather than areas that could be used for housing or parks.

On the industry side. the Data Center Coalition has supported the White House’s “ratepayer protection pledge” and other policies requiring data centers to cover more utility costs. The coalition’s senior director of federal affairs. Cy McNeill. said the group is working to educate representatives as constituents increasingly voice concerns about water usage and energy prices. “How do we provide the facts to the office. or to the congresswoman or congressman. to kind of help educate constituents on this?” McNeill said. “If we actually take a step back, look at the facts, I think the story is a lot different.”.

Activists say those protections don’t go far enough. Even when energy affordability is addressed, they warn of risks including water quality and air pollution.

One of the most prominent disputes is in Memphis. Tennessee. where residents are fighting Elon Musk’s expanding xAI data center. the Colossus supercomputer. KeShaun Pearson. the executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. said federal action such as the ratepayer protection pledge still allows developers to use polluting energy sources without acknowledging environmental impacts.

Pearson pointed to what his group sees as the scale of emissions from the facility. The xAI facility, he said, burns enough methane gas to power 280,000 homes, a claim that has spurred his organization to monitor pollution and health risks while pressing elected officials to act.

“We surely don’t want data centers that are directly causing us health issues,” Pearson said. “I think our politicians have to understand that and have to move accordingly.”

The partisan fight is now also about who controls the House. The National Republican Congressional Committee declined to comment for this report. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton offered the Democratic line. “While House Republicans fall in line behind failed policies that spike prices out of control. Democratic candidates and Frontliners are fighting for common sense solutions to provide meaningful price relief. encourage economic growth. and meet the unique needs of their communities.”.

Through all of it, the underlying buildout is continuing. While the political messaging may be missing, the facilities keep multiplying. POLITICO’s analysis finds more than 2,500 U.S. data center facilities operating across 373 congressional districts. Virginia. Texas and California contain the greatest number of data centers. and more than one in three Americans live within 5 miles of one that is already operating. In five states, most residents live within 5 miles of one.

Those numbers help explain why opposition is catching fire quickly—and why, with the midterms approaching, data centers have become a centerpiece of campaigns rather than a technical issue waiting in the wings.

The newsroom methodology behind the counts treats “upcoming” data centers as those Data Center Map labels as planned or under construction. and it uses automation and manual review to verify exact coordinates and district assignments against U.S. Census Bureau files. Data Center Map’s data is as of April 30. Some details are excluded where exact addresses are approximate or where ZIP codes overlap more than one district or where no location information is disclosed. Government-owned data centers are not included.

Competitive races account for newly redrawn boundaries finalized in Alabama. California. Florida. Louisiana. Missouri. North Carolina. Ohio. Tennessee. Texas and Utah. Competitive races are based on targets from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee. as well as POLITICO’s own reporting.

As the political season turns, the message voters are sending is hard to miss: they’re not asking lawmakers to judge technology in the abstract. They want protections, costs clarified, and environmental risks treated as real—not collateral.

Whether either party can deliver a coherent plan before Election Day remains the question at the center of the midterms’ new battleground.

data centers midterms artificial intelligence energy bills electric grid upgrades water consumption hyperscale facilities political campaigns House districts ratepayer protection pledge GRID Act Data Infrastructure Risk Reduction Act federal moratorium