{"id":19396,"date":"2026-02-26T17:01:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/how-data-centers-became-the-new-midterms-bogeyman\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:01:36","slug":"how-data-centers-became-the-new-midterms-bogeyman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/how-data-centers-became-the-new-midterms-bogeyman\/","title":{"rendered":"How data centers became the new midterms bogeyman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Data centers, once popular with elected officials in both parties, are fast becoming a midterms bogeyman.<\/p>\n

Democratic governors are racing to rein in new warehouse projects they once offered up millions of dollars in tax incentives to secure as they face voters furious over soaring electric bills. And President Donald Trump, who has slashed red tape around the industry he\u2019s lauded as a job engine, used his Tuesday State of the Union address to announce he\u2019s told major tech companies to build their own power plants to shield ratepayers from further hikes.<\/p>\n

It’s a remarkable pivot by leaders of both parties. And it reflects the rapidly shifting politics around data centers they had hailed as economic generators but are now retreating from as voters blame their proliferation for rising utility costs \u2014 part of an overall frustration with high prices that is dominating the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that everyone is talking about this all of a sudden shows how quickly this issue is moving and that politicians are reflecting the frustration that people are feeling over paying so much on their energy bills while data centers get tax breaks,\u201d said Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist and co-founder of climate advocacy group Evergreen Action.<\/p>\n

These recent contortions also show both parties are still grappling with the way forward on an increasingly potent political issue.<\/p>\n

Democrats harnessed voters\u2019 frustrations over rising utility bills \u2014 and their fears that power-hungry data centers could push them higher \u2014 to win governor\u2019s offices in New Jersey and Virginia and oust two Republicans on Georgia\u2019s utility regulating commission<\/a> last fall.<\/p>\n

Voters\u2019 worries haven\u2019t ebbed. The POLITICO Poll<\/a> found in mid-January that voters\u2019 chief concerns about data centers involved household costs. Asked about the drawbacks to building data centers in the U.S., 29 percent of Americans said it would mean higher electricity bills, 24 percent said an increased risk of blackouts and 23 percent said the projects would cost taxpayer money.<\/p>\n

Both parties have seized on making tech companies pay for their power as a salve.<\/p>\n

Just six months ago, Trump declared he was accelerating federal permitting for data centers and headed to western Pennsylvania to praise companies for investing tens of billions of dollars<\/a> in energy infrastructure as part of his push to be the \u201cworld\u2019s No. 1 superpower in artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, the president said he was negotiating with the companies behind data centers to build their own power plants to secure their power supply \u201cwhile at the same time lowering prices of electricity\u201d for Americans.<\/p>\n

Trump was light on the details<\/a> about what his \u201cratepayer protection pledge\u201d actually meant in practice, though the White House said tech companies are expected to head to Washington next week to sign the agreements. But the president has been signaling such a step since at least January, when he said he was working with Microsoft<\/a> to \u201censure that Americans don\u2019t \u2018pick up the tab\u2019\u201d for data centers\u2019 power consumption. He also banded together with Democratic governors<\/a> to push grid operator PJM to control energy prices and tech companies to shoulder the burden of power costs.<\/p>\n

Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas-based GOP strategist, said the shift shows Trump and his team \u201cdon\u2019t want to be on the wrong side of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is smart by the administration to recognize that there are concerns about energy prices and water usage,\u201d said Steinhauser, who serves as CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, a group that backs more AI industry regulation. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to be seen as allowing the companies to accelerate without any input from the community, they don\u2019t want to be seen as on the side of allowing energy prices to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats don\u2019t, either.<\/p>\n

At least half a dozen Democratic governors \u2014 several of whom are potential 2028 presidential contenders \u2014 used their annual state-of-the-state addresses to pitch regulations or call to retract old sweeteners for an industry they had previously championed.<\/p>\n

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is pushing to hit pause on tax incentives<\/a> he\u2019s long touted to lure data centers to his state. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is seeking to eliminate the tax breaks for tech companies she previously backed as a state lawmaker a decade ago, while looking to impose new water-use fees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was positioning her state as a \u201cnational leader in AI research and innovation,\u201d<\/a> has rolled out plans to make data center operators pay more for energy<\/a> or supply their own. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signaled his state would look to \u201cslow down new data centers<\/a>,\u201d unless they add more power generation.<\/p>\n

And Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who streamlined permitting to help his state be \u201call in on AI,\u201d is now calling on his legislature to codify a set of \u201cresponsible infrastructure development\u201d standards for data center developers \u2014 including hiring locally and bringing their own power generation \u2014 as he looks to mitigate voters\u2019 concerns. A survey released Wednesday from Pennsylvania pollster Quinnipiac University<\/a> showed 68 percent of registered voters would oppose a data center being built in their community, including 81 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans.<\/p>\n

Shapiro insisted his new guardrails were \u201cnot a shift\u201d when asked last week about the policy rollout. Instead, he cast them as part of his ongoing efforts to balance creating jobs with \u201cholding down energy costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve always been for the end-users having to bring their own power or generate new power and pay for it so we’re not burdening the local community,\u201d Shapiro told Blue Light News on the sidelines of the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington last week. \u201cWe just are more open about it, so anyone thinking about doing business in Pennsylvania now knows what those standards are going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proliferation of data centers across battleground states has similarly pushed energy costs to the forefront of key congressional campaigns. Imposing guardrails on the artificial intelligence industry has become a rallying cry for insurgent candidates<\/a> in primaries and an attack line in competitive districts. Calls are growing on both sides of the aisle<\/a> for a moratorium on new projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Politicians are \u201cbeginning to catch up with where their constituents are\u201d in opposing unregulated data center growth, said Mitch Jones, the managing director of policy and litigation for environmental firm Food & Water Watch, which is pushing for a construction pause.<\/p>\n

But Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who has sketched out a similar set of rules for new projects in his state, argued that a \u201cbinary\u201d approach to data centers was misguided.<\/p>\n

\u201cOftentimes, when people talk about data centers, it’s either like what they’ve done in Northern Virginia, which is kind of like, \u2018let them just run wild and do whatever they want to do.\u2019 Or it’s like trying to put a ban on them. I don’t think either is the right answer,\u201d Moore said in a brief interview at NGA. \u201cI understand how this critical infrastructure is necessary for economic growth. \u2026 But industry cannot determine the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Data centers, once popular with elected officials in both parties, are fast becoming a midterms bogeyman. Democratic governors are racing to rein in new warehouse projects they once offered up millions of dollars in tax incentives to secure as they face voters furious over soaring electric bills. And President Donald Trump, who has slashed red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}