Voters made curbing data centers a core issue in Tuesday's elections

Voters made their power bills a ballot issue in Tuesday's midterm elections, and the AI industry felt it. Democrats flipped the governor's offices in Texas, Ohio and Georgia. All three winners campaigned on pausing or reining in the massive data centers that power artificial intelligence, which many voters blame for rising electricity costs. In communities across the country, voters also passed local bans and restrictions on the facilities. But many of the costs squeezing families, from war-driven gas prices to tariffs, are set in Washington, not state capitals. That leaves the new governors with real tools on data centers and utilities, and clear limits on how fast they can lower what people pay. The biggest shift came in Texas. Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, winning 57% to 41% in unofficial results. She will be the state's first Latina governor. Hinojosa campaigned on a moratorium on new data center construction, stricter rules on water and power use, and an end to tax breaks for the industry. Wells Fargo estimates 27% of planned U.S. data center capacity is in the state. Abbott once said he wanted Texas to be the "epicenter of AI development." In September, he ordered state environmental regulators to stop issuing data center permits until a grid audit was complete. Hinojosa dismissed the move as an "election year pause." In Ohio, Democrat Dr. Amy Acton, the state's former health director, defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. She’ll become the first woman elected governor in Ohio history and the first Democrat to win the office in 20 years. Acton backs a conditional moratorium: new data centers would have to cover all of their utility costs, use union labor and build on old industrial sites rather than farmland. "Ohio is open for business, but we are not up for sale," Acton said when she unveiled the plan. ------------------------------------- Follow Scripps News on other platforms— Join our newsletter at https://bit.ly/2q1tepr Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scrippsnews/ Follow us on X: https://x.com/scrippsnews Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scrippsnews/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scrippsnews