Chart of the Week: Data centres rebuked

CNN reported that about a quarter of voters considered artificial intelligence and data centers crucial to their vote, trailing priorities like the cost of living and corruption. When asked about building data centers in their communities, voters expressed overwhelming opposition by a roughly 3-to-1 margin. In Texas, Democratic victories spanned across the state's 254 counties, including Kaufman County, which is the site of two massive data center projects. A pro-Talarico super PAC, Lone Star Rising PAC, targeted voters within 5 miles of proposed or approved data center projects in 55 counties, warning them through mailers that Republican nominee Ken Paxton made it easier to build. Talarico carried Kaufman County by 1 percentage point on his way to a 12-point statewide victory. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa called for a moratorium on data centers until the legislature could pass real protections. Michigan Representative-elect Will Lawrence flipped a Republican-held House seat after centering his campaign early on opposition to data centers, stating that the backlash was an overwhelming, unequivocal, bipartisan reaction from the bottom up. Lawrence attended a Howell Township planning board meeting in October 2025 to protest a proposed data center before running his first TV ad warning that tech billionaires want to turn fields into massive data centers that will jack up energy bills and ruin home values. President Donald Trump strongly supported data centers, though by the final weeks of the election, he began rebranding AI as super intelligence due to political problems. A conservative AI policy group, the Alliance for a Better Future, issued a memo the day after the election urging Republicans to recalibrate and course correct ahead of 2028. In Ohio, voters in at least 10 cities passed charter amendments to ban construction of large data centers, according to Conserve Ohio, with a ballot measure in Granville receiving over 80 percent support. Senate winner Sherrod Brown branded Republican incumbent Jon Husted as the face of data centers, while Senate Democrats blocked Husted's September legislation aimed at combating rising energy costs from data centers. The National Republican Senatorial Committee had issued an August memo warning that data centers were an anchor hanging around Husted's neck. In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews won a Senate upset after labeling Republican incumbent Darline Graham as Data Center Darline. A new industry-aligned super PAC, Building the Future, spent $2.5 million on Graham's behalf in the general election. In Wisconsin, Mitchell Berman defeated Republican Representative Bryan Steil after running an ad showing him shooting a clay pigeon labeled Data Center. In Arizona, Democrat Amish Shah won after stating he did not want any data centers in his district, while his Republican opponent, Jay Feely, argued that data centers are necessary to win the artificial intelligence race against China. Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition argued the industry needs to better show Americans how data centers address cost of living concerns, pointing to tax relief in Loudoun County, Virginia. Meanwhile, a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned about the political dangers of the issue.