Data Centers Are The Midterms' Other Big Loser

The small army of congressional candidates who ran to victory Tuesday vowing to halt the expansion of data centers — including some of the country's most prominent incoming Democratic senators — are poised to make Capitol Hill far more antagonistic toward the AI infrastructure build-out and increase pressure on their colleagues to act on new regulations.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia, former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan all won Senate races where data centers had increasingly become a front-line issue. In South Carolina, Republican Sen. Darline Graham lost to Democrat Annie Andrews, after pro-data-center super PAC Building the Future spent $2.5 million to support the incumbent — part of a broader trend where Republicans who were pegged as pro-data center by opponents, and hewed close to President Donald Trump’s support of the facilities, lost races.

"I will always be on your side — always. I do not work for the utility companies. I do not work for data centers. I do not work for Wall Street. I work for you, I work for Ohio," Brown said in his victory speech Tuesday night.

All of the Senate candidates spoke in debates about the need to ensure that technology companies pay for their own power. Brown, in particular, used data centers as a wedge issue, running ad campaigns depicting opponent Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) as a supporter.

The victors who made data centers a signature of their campaigns were mostly Democrats, in line with the party’s widespread wins nationally on an agenda of confronting Trump and dealing with the affordability crisis.

In the House, Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) lost in a race where data centers featured prominently. And Democrat Justin Pearson, running in a red district in Tennessee, well outperformed expectations after making data center pollution in Memphis the centerpiece of his campaign. He is on track to lose by less than 2 percentage points in a newly redrawn district that voted for President Donald Trump by more than 21 percentage points in 2024.

The importance of data centers was not lost on Republican incumbents, who grew increasingly desperate to boost their credentials on the issue in the last months of the legislative session in Washington. Husted and Evans sponsored the Ratepayer Protection Act over the summer, which became the primary legislative push to address voter concerns on data centers. Some other incumbents who lost, like Pennsylvania Republicans Reps. Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan, mounted last-ditch pressure campaigns to advance that legislation — but the effort ultimately fell flat amid Democratic opposition.

“The new Congress is likely to be tougher on data centers,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Public policy is going to reflect public opinion, and there's been a very substantial change in public opinion just over the last year.”

Data center issues started to take on political salience nationally last year, as booming development and rapidly growing electricity costs increasingly took voters’ attention. Analysts credit anger over the buildings and their impacts with helping Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and a pair of Georgia Public Service Commission members win their races.

The issue became more salient in recent months as Democrats increasingly pushed for strict data center policies — with some backing pauses on building new ones. Republicans rushed to follow with their own ideas, like the Ratepayer Protection Act, which encourages states to consider new policies to ensure that data centers don’t raise electricity rates for other users.

Some Republicans went even further, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who paused data center construction in his state. The action was not enough to stop Democratic momentum; Abbott lost reelection to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who criticized Abbott for not working harder against data centers, as Democrats swept the top statewide offices in Texas for the first time in a generation.

Kevin Liao, a California-based Democratic strategist and former Energy Department official, said Democrats had the advantage on data centers after Trump emerged as a champion for developers.

“It’s then much harder for down-ballot Republicans to create their own image and narrative on this issue, and it gives Democratic candidates up and down the ballot the ability to point to the boogeyman of Trump,” he said. “It creates such a clear contrast when that message is coming from the top.”

Republican California strategist Rob Stutzman said the political fight was more about concerns with AI around safety and job protection, not necessarily the environmental and community impacts of the buildings.

“A lot of this comes down to the public’s fear of AI, and this is the tool they have to fight,” Stutzman said. “Probably the safest position for candidates to take in this cycle is a ban, because that is addressing more of this existential fear that I think voters have. It’s safe to signal back to voters that you understand their concerns.”

Stutzman predicts that this is just the beginning of political opposition to AI.

“I do think we’ll look back on the data centers of ‘26 as the first manifestation of AI having a substantial impact on our politics,” he said.

Congressional outlook

With new power on Capitol Hill, Democrats have the power to shape data center policy for the first time since the issue gained national political salience — and they're primed to take a more aggressive stance than current Republican leaders.

Democratic winners, like Paige Cognetti, who won a House seat in Pennsylvania, and Andrews in South Carolina, vowed on the campaign trail to push aggressive measures mandating that data centers pay for grid upgrades or bring their own power sources.

Those could include bills that look like the Ratepayer Protection Act — the bipartisan data center energy proposal that so far gained the most traction in Congress — but with stronger federal enforcement mechanisms.

Also up for debate is a temporary moratorium on data center construction, which some Democrats have endorsed, including New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, who is now poised to chair the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee.

It is not just Democrats who may take a stronger stance against the data center build-out, West added. Republicans, too, will have to contend with voter sentiment against data centers that has reached a fever pitch.

“There are large majorities opposed to data centers in both parties. So I think political leaders in both parties are going to be under enormous pressure to do something,” West said.

Potentially complicating matters is the ongoing effort to pass a permitting deal.

The bill includes protections to ensure ratepayers do not foot the energy bill for data centers. Should it pass during the lame-duck session, it would narrow the next Congress’ options to legislate on the issue, said Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard University.

If members of the 120th Congress wanted to advance their own data center legislation, they would have to take a different permitting approach, including requirements for data centers to bring their own power sources.

“Congress could do a lot here to preempt state protections of utility monopolies that prevent data centers from bringing their own power,” Peskoe said. “I think there's more work Congress could do on that.”

West said that even if permitting reform does pass, it will not let the next Congress off the hook on the issue — instead, it will increase local pressure on Congress to act, given that the bill overall makes it easier for data centers and other large facilities to build.

“I don't think it's going to be ‘mission accomplished’ on data centers,” West said. “The political pressure at the local level is still going to be there.”

Ariel Wittenberg contributed to this report.