Sen. Jon Husted introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act last month as backlash against artificial intelligence infrastructure spread through midterm politics, with candidates from both parties attacking data centers as a source of higher utility costs, local disruption and corporate overreach.
Who Pays for the Boom
The people footing the bill are the ones nowhere near the boardroom. Goldman Sachs projected that the data centers that run AI could lead to a 6% rise in electricity bills nationally over the next year, with the biggest jumps for people living near data centers. That’s the basic deal here: giant infrastructure for corporate AI, higher costs for everyone else. A Fox News poll in July found 70% of voters oppose building data centers in their area to support AI. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in June found 59% of adults would oppose a data center being built within 10 miles of their home. A Pew Research survey released this month found that 52% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, up from 37% in 2021, and that a large majority expect AI to decrease the number of jobs.
The political class has noticed. It always does, once the anger starts to threaten votes.
CNN analysis of campaign ads found that more than $31 million has been spent on political ads mentioning data centers so far this year, with spending spiking last month, when more than 8% of all campaign spending on broadcast TV went to data center or AI-related spots, according to tracking from AdImpact. That was up from less than 1% of ads last year. More than 99% of the spending this year went to spots against AI infrastructure projects. Daniel King, a research fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, said, "Data centers have picked up a unique bipartisan opposition in large part because they are so local as an issue." He added, "Regardless of where party lines fall at the national level or on larger issues, both sides have been able to really pick up the spike."
What People Are Saying Back
Clifford Young, the chair of research firm Ipsos Public Affairs, said, "It isn’t intrinsically a right or left issue." He added, "It’s a boogeyman for everyone. It plays into this underlying belief that the system is broken."
That’s the closest thing in the article to a plain description of the mood on the ground. People see the machinery. They see the costs. They see the same old promise of progress turning into another bill, another land grab, another round of corporate expansion dressed up as inevitability.
In Ohio, the issue has become central to the Senate race between Democrat Sherrod Brown and GOP Sen. Jon Husted. Brown’s campaign has spent more than $3.5 million since July on three TV spots attacking Husted on data centers, according to AdImpact. In the ads, Brown says Husted is "a chief reason Ohio has so many data centers" and pledges to "require the data centers pay the full cost of their electricity, not you." One ad says, "He’s been called the face of data centers in Ohio." A National Republican Senatorial Committee strategy memo obtained by CNN said, "the new ingredient (and the new problem) is data centers." It added, "Brown is using it because it works," and, "More than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck."
Husted has tried to recalibrate. Last month, he introduced the Ratepayer Protection Act. A campaign spokesperson said Husted believes "data centers are, and should remain, a local decision," and accused Brown of flip-flopping on the issue. In the state’s competitive race for governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton have also offered multi-point plans imposing strict regulations on tech companies and protections for residents.
The Local Backlash Grows
The fight has spread well beyond Ohio. In Wisconsin, data centers have become a defining issue in the governor’s race. The state hosts several major developments, including a 315-acre Microsoft campus in Mount Pleasant touted as "the world’s most powerful AI datacenter," and plans for a 672-acre facility in Port Washington backed by Oracle and OpenAI.
In a close Democratic primary, state Rep. Francesca Hong backed a data center moratorium and said, "Unlike the other candidates, I’m not bought by corporations, so I’ll actually stop AI data centers." After Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley prevailed, Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany attacked him with an ad nicknaming him "Data Center David Crowley," using a clip of Crowley saying Wisconsin could be "an AI and a data hub … for the entire globe." Tiffany’s ad supports eliminating state tax incentives for the industry. Crowley said he would "hold data centers accountable and make them pay," and said, "when I’m governor, I am going to aggressively protect Wisconsin citizens from the abuses of these big tech billionaires and their unregulated data centers."
The same pattern shows up in Michigan and Missouri. Will Lawrence, a climate activist who won the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s 7th District, ran TV ads pledging to "stop AI data centers," and said that focus helped him win. Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary the same night, campaigning on extensive new standards for data centers. Earlier this month, El-Sayed’s GOP opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, said he now supports a one-year moratorium on building new data centers. In St. Charles County, Missouri, 99% of campaign spending on broadcast TV in the GOP primary for county executive mentioned data centers, and the county last month passed a six-month moratorium on large-scale data centers while one of its largest cities banned new developments. Local resident Kara Elms said, "No one wants to live next to a giant behemoth." She added, "Both Democrats and Republicans can jump on that issue."
The Money Behind the Machines
Industry groups are spending heavily to push back. Tech giants like Meta, Google and Anthropic, a prominent venture capital firm, and top AI executives have donated more than $190 million to super PACs and nonprofits that have spent over $60 million on independent expenditures in the midterm elections so far. Super PAC Leading The Future has taken in $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz and another $25 million from OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna. Through June, it reported spending nearly $45 million, often directed at candidates taking a hard line on AI and data center regulation.
In New York’s 12th congressional district, the group and its proxies spent millions against state Assemblyman Alex Bores, who had led a novel effort to regulate the industry in the state legislature. He lost the nomination to Assemblyman Micah Lasher. Leading The Future’s ads have avoided AI or data centers. Its proxy groups American Mission and Think Big have spent a combined $8 million on broadcast TV ads in races around the country so far this year, but none have mentioned AI or data centers. Instead, they have touted candidates as a "proven fighter" or highlighted endorsements from President Donald Trump.
California Leads, a group funded by Meta and Google, has spent more than $1.5 million on broadcast ads supporting moderate candidates in state legislative elections, also without mentioning tech, AI or data centers. Public First Action, a nonprofit advocacy group backed by $40 million from Anthropic, says it supports robust AI regulations aimed at safety and responsible development and has spent more than $10 million along with affiliated super PACs on ads this cycle. It has boosted lawmakers like Bores and aired ads such as one for Texas GOP Rep. Nathaniel Moran that said, "No technology should be more powerful than the people it serves."
Several tech companies have also run broader promotional campaigns for their data center projects. In 2025, Meta spent more than $6 million on broadcast ads promoting jobs created by its data centers in Iowa and New Mexico. Oracle has aired similar ads, with a spokeswoman saying, "It’s a data center, done right."
Politicians already in office are moving to avoid blame from voters alarmed by AI. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York have both backed versions of a data center pause. Hochul signed a one-year moratorium on new large-scale data centers in July, calling it a move that would "give us some breathing room" amid perhaps "the most significant economic upheaval in history." Abbott, who helped grow Texas into a national leader with 537 data centers during his three terms as governor, now favors pausing construction on new data centers pending an audit of their electricity and water usage. He said, "Simply put, Texans must come first."
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has also shifted. In 2025, he welcomed a $20 billion investment from Amazon and said his state was "all in on AI." This month, he announced an executive order restricting the development of data centers, eliminating fast-track approvals and expanding the review process, though he stopped short of an outright ban. He accused data center builders of "scaring our communities, being aggressive with township officials," and "bullying our neighbors." He also launched an attack ad this month against GOP opponent Stacy Garrity, replaying clips of her saying that "we could be the leader in AI."
Defense hawks and other security-minded lawmakers argue that limiting data center development could hurt American competition with China. On the campaign trail in Michigan this month, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said that "a broad moratorium against data centers is kind of a dangerous prospect right now." President Donald Trump has taken the opposite position, calling himself a data center advocate and AI accelerationist. Earlier this month, he said, "Many of them are designed in a very beautiful way." He added, "It’s really very positive." He also said, "I would say that maybe it could use a little public relations help."