Midterm voters back data center limits at ballot box and in key races

What happened

Data center builders face a tighter regulatory climate after the midterm elections, in which voters chose a number of candidates who favor development pauses and approved local measures limiting new facilities, The Verge reported. In NBC News polling conducted on Election Day, 76 percent of respondents said they did not want data centers in their communities.

Of 45 local ballot questions on data centers, 33 had produced results that restrict development as of Wednesday morning, according to a tracker compiled by Redbud Consulting. Wells, Maine, backed a 180-day moratorium on large facilities, several Ohio cities voted to ban sites above 25MW, and El Dorado, Kansas, barred facilities with peak electrical load above 10MW for 10 years.

Among the upsets, Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who supports a statewide moratorium, won the Texas governorship held by Republican Greg Abbott, and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, an early advocate of a pause, won a Michigan Senate seat. Results were mixed elsewhere: Republican Byron Donalds, who opposed an outright ban, won Florida's governorship, and Democrat Rob Sand won in Iowa despite rejecting a moratorium his rival backed.

Context

Opposition had been building before Election Day. Lawmakers in Maine approved a bill that would have created the nation's first data center moratorium, but the governor vetoed it. A National Republican Senatorial Committee memo leaked this summer cautioned that blaming the industry for a possible defeat of Senator Jon Husted could make the facilities appear toxic to future candidates; Husted ultimately lost his seat to Sherrod Brown.