Voters side against data centers in 40 of 41 local ballot measures, and Democrats who ran against the buildout win in Ohio and Texas
CNBC tallies the 41 measures and the donor money that didn't work; Reason walks through the town-by-town bans.
There were 41 local ballot measures on data centers in 10 states on November 3, according to Ballotpedia, and voters sided against data centers in every one but Harwood, North Dakota, CNBC reports. Ohio had 21 of them; several towns wrote data center bans into their charters, some limited to so-called hyperscalers. Kansas towns including Emporia and El Dorado passed bans, and Joliet, Illinois, voters said no to an advisory question on AI data centers, Reason reports. The results are preliminary, and trackers' counts differ slightly.
The issue also ran at the top of the ticket. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown ousted Sen. Jon Husted after calling him "the face of data centers," and Governor-elect Amy Acton supports a "conditional moratorium." In Texas, Gina Hinojosa blamed Gov. Greg Abbott for the rapid buildout. In a CNBC voter poll, 56% said data centers were a crucial or major factor in their vote.
The industry's Data Center Coalition told Fox Business that data centers bring jobs, tax revenue and investment.
Across the spectrum 2
Democrat
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus: Casar said "the House Democratic majority must make it a top priority to protect Americans' jobs, freedom, and lives from AI billionaires," that "AI company CEOs should be called to testify under oath," and that "the revolt against data centers was one of the top issues of the 2026 election."
CNBC ↗Libertarian
Tosin Akintola, Reason: Akintola writes that "data centers, for all their economic potential, remain deeply unpopular in much of America," notes that some bans, like Edgewater, Florida's, hardly seem necessary since no data centers operate there, and warns the backlash could "extend beyond Main Street to inundate policymaking in Washington."
Reason ↗-
Data center
After exploring Voters rebuff data centers in every ballot measure except one during the 2026 midterms, for what is actually inside the buildings voters turned down, start with Data center.
A data center houses computer equipment for storing, processing and transmitting data: servers, storage, networking gear, power distribution and cooling.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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