Data centers are becoming a fixture of battleground politics

The AI-driven data center boom is colliding with the politics of affordability, and House candidates are increasingly caught in the middle. Across the country, data centers have become targets of community opposition to rising electricity bills, water consumption, land use and the influence of Big Tech. In Wisconsin, community dissent has disrupted five data center proposals. In Tennessee, residents clashed with local officials over Elon Musk’s xAI data center. In Ohio, New York and more, proposals to ban the construction of new data centers are gaining traction. Now, those fights are spilling into races that will decide control of the House in November.