Could Data Centers Swing an Election in Wisconsin?
A proposed Meta-linked data center in Rock County, Wisconsin, has sparked significant local opposition due to concerns about utility bills, air quality, and groundwater, leading to a proposed moratorium by the Town of Beloit supervisors. This local backlash has elevated data center development into a major issue in the Wisconsin governor's race and other state elections. Politicians across the country are grappling with the rising unpopularity of data centers and their potential impact on electoral outcomes.
A proposed hyper-scale A.I. data center, named Cornmaze and linked to Meta, in Rock County, Wisconsin, has ignited strong local opposition. County Supervisor Philip Gorman discovered permits related to the project, which would cover over four hundred acres and impact the towns in his district. Concerns include increased utility bills, diminished air quality, and depletion of groundwater, leading Gorman and citizens to organize community meetings against the project, ultimately securing a unanimous vote by the Town of Beloit supervisors to advance a one-year data center moratorium.
The political fallout from data center developments is scrambling electoral lines nationwide, particularly in Rust Belt states like Wisconsin and Ohio. In Wisconsin, the issue has become central to the governor's race. Democratic candidate Francesca Hong, known for her strong opposition to data centers and proposal for a one-year moratorium, narrowly lost the primary to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who is against a full moratorium but advocates for "guardrails." Crowley's Republican opponent, Representative Tom Tiffany, has seized on the issue, campaigning as an anti-data center candidate, despite a past record of supporting such developments and tax breaks.
Wisconsin has become a significant hub for data center construction due to ample freshwater, a cool climate, available land, and substantial sales- and use-tax exemptions enacted in 2023. Developers like Cloverleaf Infrastructure are acquiring vast plots for projects such as Oracle and OpenAI's fifteen-billion-dollar campus in Port Washington. However, statewide opposition has surged, with a recent Marquette University Law School poll indicating 78% of residents oppose data centers, leading politicians to adjust their stances and emphasizing the issue's potential to be a "blockbuster" in the upcoming election.