Data center developers are poised to face a more restrictive building environment after voters across the country voted in candidates who favor moratoriums and ballot measures that put more obstacles on their expansion, delivering a stinging blow to a central pillar of the AI industry.
Of voters polled by NBC News on Election Day, 76 percent said they opposed data centers in their communities. This sentiment was reflected in dozens of local ballot measures; as of Wednesday morning, a site compiled by Redbud Consulting showed that 33 of 45 nationwide measures will restrict data center development. Specific local actions include the Town of Wells, Maine, favoring a 180-day moratorium on large data centers, backdated to mid-June 2026. Several cities in Ohio voted to ban data centers over 25MW, and the City of El Dorado, Kansas, voted to ban data centers with peak electrical load over 10MW for 10 years.
It’s hard to draw a direct line from data center backlash to the election of any of these candidates, and there were still some races where candidates who favored more limited restrictions on data centers prevailed. However, several upset winners support moratoriums. Texas Democratic Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who flipped the seat from Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, supports a statewide moratorium. Abbott, who previously praised expansion, announced a new audit this summer that could slow new developments from connecting to the state energy grid.
In another major upset, Democratic State Rep. James Talarico flipped Texas blue in a Senate victory against Attorney General Ken Paxton. Both candidates wanted to remove some tax exemptions and make developers responsible for infrastructure costs, but Talarico also put an emphasis on the facilities’ environmental impact and ensuring they shared their profits with the public.
In Florida, Republican Rep. Byron Donalds won the governor’s seat over Democratic former congressman David Jolly. Donalds opposed an outright ban but introduced the Protecting Ratepayers Act to make developers pay for their own energy and water needs. Jolly said he’d bar hyperscalers for a year beginning on day one in office.
