Public perception is everything heading into a crucial midterm election fight, and voters across the political spectrum have laid down the gauntlet over their view of data centers this cycle.
Republicans running for power in the Senate are keenly aware that their voters arent happy about data centers, according to recent polling. While they believe that the construction of the windowless, hulking behemoths should be slowed or halted, they dont want the federal government to play an outsized role.
“The data center companies haven’t done a very good job of explaining why they should be allowed to develop in communities,” Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital at the GOPs midterm convention in Dallas.
“But the bottom line is, that should be a local decision, not a federal decision,” he continued. “I don’t want the federal government telling you that you must have a data center or that you can’t have a data center. That’s a local decision. Some people will say yes, some people will no.”
A Gallup Poll published in May found that 70% of Americans dont want new data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) constructed in their towns and cities. Many of their concerns are about the impact that a new data center could have on their bills, be it through spikes in water or electricity costs.
Husted is one of a handful of vulnerable Republicans running in this cycle, and he, like others, is hearing about data centers and their impact routinely on the campaign trail.
He attempted to pass a bill quickly on the Senate floor last week that would have tried to tackle the latter issue of booming electricity costs by preventing AI and tech companies from placing the burden of power grid infrastructure upgrades on taxpayers, but was blocked by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., despite the bill having passed the House 417 to 3.
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“Rather than voluntary pledges, or suggestions to states, Congress needs to pass real legislation with real teeth,” Heinrich said.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers, who is running in one of the most competitive races this cycle in Michigan, told Fox News Digital that he hears “lots and lots of concern about data centers, not just the physical beings, but what happens on the other side of AI.”
“What we’ve said is there should be a moratorium until we get all of voters’ decisions and questions answered,” Rogers said. “These are big decisions. I don’t think there should be a federal ban because if the federal government can ban it, it can also tell you have to have one.”
Rogers wants data centers to operate with closed water systems, not to add to voters’ electric bills, and for the boom in property taxes that they provide to be returned to taxpayers.
“You don’t give it to the government to give out. You don’t do any of that,” Rogers said. “It goes right back to the very people who have one of these in their neighborhoods. But we’ve got a lot of those q
