Midterm election candidates campaign on data center pushback

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - In communities across the country, midterm election candidates have quickly turned concerns about data centers into a centerpiece issue on the campaign trail.

Both Democrats and Republicans running at the local, state and federal levels have been trying to tap into the data center backlash that has popped up in recent weeks.

In Texas, state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in the state’s U.S. Senate race, hosted a roundtable discussion about data centers earlier this month and said that federal lawmakers must take action on regulating them.

“We need a senator who’s actually going to fight to rein in some of these companies and ensure that these data center projects are meeting the demands of folks who live in these communities,” he said.

In Wisconsin, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany said he wants conditions placed on data centers.

“No data centers unless they meet the following conditions. We’re going to end the subsidies that were signed into law a couple years ago they do not need to be subsidized by tax payers,” Tiffany said.

The data center push from candidates comes just as new national polling was released that found rising opposition to data centers that crosses party lines.

According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center survey, about three in five Americans now oppose local data centers, and majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents are not in favor of them.

University of Michigan Public Policy Professor Shobita Parthasarathy said opposition has grown in recent months.

“Opposition began. But it has really accelerated, I think over the last I would say even just six months,” Parthasarathy said.

She said she thinks data centers are a proxy for broader concerns about artificial intelligence and inequality and the issue may end up driving some voters to the polls.

“People are just sort of increasingly alienated, alienated, fed up and and as I said, exercised by it in a way that I’ve never seen before. So I think it’s entirely possible that they could be motivated to go out to vote on that issue,” Parthasarathy said.