Data centres lost at the ballot box in the United States midterm elections on 3 November, as voters in towns and cities across the country backed limits on the buildings that power artificial intelligence.
Voters faced 41 data centre measures in 10 states, according to a count by Ballotpedia published on election day. A yes vote on 28 of the 41 would limit the facilities, through bans, moratoriums, zoning rules or public votes on big projects. By Wednesday, 33 local ballot measures restricting data centres had passed or were leading in counts still under way, Stateline reported, citing the tracker Data Centers on the Ballot.
All but one of the 41 measures moved against data centres, according to a Reuters newsletter dated 4 November. Voters in at least 29 jurisdictions passed bans or restrictions on data centres, the Washington Post reported. A separate count by the tracker put the number at 37 restrictive measures passed and six more leading, with just one, in Harwood, North Dakota, voted down.
Data centres and the Texas result
The biggest shift came in Texas, the state with the most planned data centre capacity in the country. Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott, winning 52.8 percent to 45.7 percent with about 93.5 percent of the expected vote counted, according to NBC News. The Associated Press called the race for Hinojosa at 11:17 pm Eastern time on Tuesday, and Abbott conceded.
Hinojosa campaigned on a moratorium on new data centre construction, stricter rules on water and power use, and an end to tax breaks for the industry. She will be the state’s first Latina governor and its first Democratic governor since 1995. Wells Fargo estimates that 27 percent of planned United States data centre capacity is in Texas.
Abbott had already ordered a pause of his own. On 3 August, he directed state regulators and the grid operator to stop new facilities from connecting to the main Texas grid until an audit of their power and water use is complete. On 21 September, he extended the pause to state environmental permits. The audit was expected to finish by December, and Hinojosa takes office on 19 January. She has said she would ban all data centre approvals until the legislature passes new laws.
Data centres face a pause in Georgia
In Georgia, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms beat Republican businessman Rick Jackson by 54.2 percent to 45.8 percent, with 98.2 percent of the expected vote counted. Bottoms is the first Democrat to win Georgia’s governorship since 1998 and the first Black woman elected governor in American history. She campaigned on a statewide pause on new data centre construction to study the effect on power bills, water supplies and communities.
Bottoms said on 4 November that she would immediately sign an executive order for the pause, and then determine what else is needed to put it into effect. She also plans to review the state’s data centre tax incentives. Metro Atlanta led the nation in data centre space under construction in the first half of 2026, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Georgia is the third-largest data centre market in the country.
Voters link data centres to power bills
Data centres were a ballot issue because many voters blame them for rising electricity costs. Fifty-six percent of voters told the CNBC voter poll that data centres were a major factor in their vote on Tuesday.
In Ohio, Democrat Amy Acton, the state’s former health director, defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. She will become the first woman elected governor in Ohio and the first Democrat to win the office in 20 years. Acton backs a conditional moratorium: new data centres would have to cover all of their utility costs, use union labour and build on old industrial sites rather than farmland.
Local governments had already adopted more than 125 data centre moratoriums as of September, according to the Ohio Capital Journal. Texas accounts for 41 percent of new United States data centre capacity expected in 2028, and a pause lasting more than six months could delay projects in the state. Democrats are on track to control the Texas House, which would help Hinojosa follow through, but the state Senate appears set to stay Republican. Both governors take office in January.
The measures voted on this week concerned the facilities and related development. They did not ask voters whether artificial intelligence models or research should continue, and Reuters noted that voters could influence how quickly the infrastructure gets built locally, but the vote did not settle the speed of AI research. The results still sent a clear message to the industry about the cost of new building.