Voters Reject AI Data-Center Projects in 40 of 41 Local Contests

Voters backed restrictions on AI data-center development in 40 of 41 local ballot measure contests on Nov. 3, 2026, according to NBC News results cited by TIME and Brave New Coin. Harwood, North Dakota, was the only community to reject a proposed review requirement for developments including data centers.

Residents objected to the projects’ drain on electricity and water, noise, and limited local economic benefit, according to TIME and Brave New Coin. A Blue Rose Research poll found Americans would rather live near a prison, methadone clinic, or nuclear power plant than an AI data center. An NBC exit poll found 56% of voters called AI and data centers a crucial or major factor in their congressional vote.

Voters approved 27 measures restricting development or expressing opposition to data centers and rejected 13 proposals supporting new projects on Nov. 3, 2026. They also recalled the mayors of Piqua, Ohio, and Yukon, Oklahoma, for supporting data-center projects. Counties ranging from Edgewater, Florida, to Bloomington, Illinois, passed bans or moratoriums on Nov. 3, 2026.

Democrats spent more than $100 million on ads casting Republican opponents as overly close to Big Tech and data centers, helping win many races in Ohio, Kansas, and Iowa. Ohio Senator-elect Sherrod Brown won by five percentage points after ads labeled his opponent, Husted, the face of data centers in Ohio. A National Republican Senatorial Committee memo from August had called the issue an anchor around Husted’s neck.

In Kansas, Cindy Holscher led the governor’s race on Nov. 4 after calling for a halt to data-center construction until the state set guardrails, while opponent Ty Masterson received $1.5 million from a data-center super PAC. Arizona’s Amish Shah led Jay Feely in the congressional race on Nov. 4 after pledging to stop data-center construction; Feely argued U.S. data centers were necessary to beat China in the global AI race.

In Wisconsin, Tom Tiffany dubbed his opponent Data Center David Crowley before Crowley shifted toward tighter restrictions in October 2026 and won. James Talarico crushed Ken Paxton in Texas after calling for an end to sweetheart tax deals for Big Tech and other guardrails.

Pro-safety-backed candidates won in Michigan, Colorado, and Wisconsin, including Abdul El-Sayed and Manny Rutinel. Michigan’s Thomas More Barrett faced $896,250 in opposition funding. Colorado’s Manny Rutinel received $1.5 million from pro-safety groups and called for a conditional moratorium.

Wisconsin voters chose Rebecca Cooke over Derrick Van Orden despite more than $880,000 in pro-safety spending against Van Orden. In a New York primary, pro-safety groups spent $21.3 million backing Alex Bores against $8.2 million of accelerationist opposition, but Bores lost. Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham, whom she labeled Data Center Darline, after calling for a two-year moratorium on new data-center projects.

Spending by data-center and pro-AI super PACs did not significantly sway the elections. TIME described the leading pro-AI faction as having looked poised to tip the midterms before Nov. 3 proved a bad night for them. Leading the Future, launched in August 2025 with more than $100 million to back pro-AI candidates, mostly held its spending in reserve after OpenAI’s Greg Brockman and Ron Conway withdrew promised donations. Elon Musk gave $446 million in the cycle, including $168 million effectively supporting Ken Paxton in Texas.

Anthropic contributed more than $40 million to Public First Action for stronger safeguards, with employees adding another $5 million. A survey found three-quarters of likely voters would be less likely to support a candidate who accepted an AI super PAC donation. Pro-safety PACs outspent accelerationists in key races after the accelerationists’ ineffectiveness opened a pathway, yet neither side’s cash proved decisive.

AI deepfakes circulated during the 2026 midterms but did not appear to have an outsize impact in many races. Deepfaked videos of Maine Senator-elect Troy Jackson threatening campaign staff circulated before the election, yet Jackson won by more than seven percentage points. Derrick Van Orden posted deepfake videos of Rebecca Cooke saying things she never said, and Van Orden lost.

Donald Trump said opponents of data centers want to wind up backwards and poor. With Trump in the White House, sweeping federal AI legislation would need his signature or a veto-proof bipartisan majority, and Congress could summon executives to committees or reverse Republican efforts to block state-level laws. Strategist Brendan Steinhauser said voters strongly back AI safety and oppose data centers and Flock license-plate reader cameras, predicting a wave of state and federal bills.

Scott Singer of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said California could govern U.S. and global AI if Congress is gridlocked; Singer helped write the California-commissioned report behind SB-53, the first U.S. frontier AI law. Nearly half of Americans in an October 2026 Politico poll named Republicans as the group they most associate with wanting to build data centers.

Ali Mortell of Blue Rose Research said data-center opinion has soured among Democratic and Republican voters alike, and that concrete local impacts such as higher energy bills, noise, and environmental concerns mattered more than existential AI fears. Mortell also said low trust in institutions means voters do not believe reassurances from tech companies and politicians, and he called 2026 the first election cycle with AI in the political discourse whose importance will likely only grow. AI ranked 29th of 39 issues in Blue Rose Research polling, but its salience rose more than any other issue, including the Middle East war.

OpenAI plans a policy and public-relations offensive, including rebranding data centers as AI compute campuses, TIME reported, citing Axios. Meta is building a bipartisan team to strengthen ties with Democrats while keeping Republican ties, according to the outlet’s reporting.

On Nov. 6, 2026, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said OpenAI promised it will never raise customers’ electricity bills. Friar said OpenAI would work with utilities, invest in the electric grid, and deepen community relationships. The company’s Nov. 5, 2026, National Community Compact pledges to pay full electricity and infrastructure costs for campuses it owns and operates.

The company promised financial assurances before major spending to shield other ratepayers if a project is delayed, reduced, or canceled. The Nov. 2, 2026, Grid Protectors Program would let future campuses cut power use during local grid stress. Georgia Power can cut as much as 1,000 megawatts to OpenAI’s planned Effingham County, Georgia, campus during high demand.

Friar estimated large data centers use about two Olympic swimming pools of trucked water, mostly for employees rather than cooling. OpenAI will make per-campus water plans, favor closed-loop or low-water cooling, and publish site-level electricity and water data.

Friar said she discussed a 300-foot noise berm for a Georgia data center with state officials. OpenAI will publish construction plans, commission independent pre-operating noise studies, and report noise annually.

The National Community Compact applies to campuses OpenAI owns and operates, not automatically to third-party facilities in its network. Effingham County residents helped direct a $4.8 million OpenAI grant for free school meals, and OpenAI and SB Energy committed $6 million to childcare in Pike County, Ohio. Friar said the election results would not end OpenAI’s data-center investments, though community support remains crucial to expansion.