US Data Centre Backlash Reshapes Midterm Elections Across Swing States
· World · Hindustan Times, The Economist
US data centres have become one of the country's most politically toxic infrastructure issues, with a March Gallup poll showing 71% of Americans opposed to local construction — a sharp reversal from majority support just a year earlier. Governors who once championed the AI boom are now pulling back: Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker paused tax-credit applications for new data centres in June, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered utilities to audit all data-centre power requests, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro gave communities veto power over projects. On August 31, 2026, President Donald Trump entered the debate, warning local opponents they would "end up being backwards and poor" if they killed the "Golden Goose". The bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act, designed to curb data centres' impact on electricity prices, advanced through a House committee in July. The backlash is scrambling traditional alignments ahead of the midterm elections, unnerving tech firms and investors, though
Why it matters
The political turn against data centres is reshaping US midterm races in key swing states like Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania, and could raise operating costs or delay expansion plans for AI-driven cloud and tech firms that depend on large-scale computing capacity.
Read the original report — Hindustan Times
Join us on Telegram
Breaking news the moment it lands. At 10,000 members we ship the Android app.