2026 US elections: refined figures show 40 of 41 local votes on data centers resulted in restrictions, opposition linked to Democratic victory

A newer source (The Conversation) refines previously published figures on the 2026 US elections: of 41 local ballot initiatives concerning data centers in 10 states, 40 resulted in measures restricting their construction (an earlier estimate from Redbud Consulting cited 38 of 44 measures in the same 10 states). The only vote that did not result in a restriction took place in Harwood, North Dakota, where instead of a ban, a requirement for independent assessments and public hearings for project expansions passed. The average margin of victory for restrictive votes was 49 percentage points. According to NBC exit polls, 56% of voters considered data centers a major or key factor in their choice for Congress, rising to 68% among Black voters. The topic also featured in key races – Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown criticized rival Jon Husted's support for data centers in the Ohio Senate race, while in Texas, Gina Hinojosa built her campaign on criticizing Governor Greg Abbott's tax breaks for these centers and won the election, ending decades of Republican control of the state.

According to the earlier analysis by Redbud Consulting, these were predominantly moratoriums and bans on new projects which, according to experts, should not affect construction already approved or underway through 2027, but will primarily affect projects planned for 2028. Representatives of major tech companies claim, according to sources, that voter criticism should be understood as directed more at President Trump than at the technology itself.

Opposition to data centers crosses traditional party lines: according to a mid-2026 Annenberg Public Policy Center survey, 69% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans oppose data centers in their area. Before the elections, the House of Representatives passed the Ratepayer Protection Act by a vote of 417:3, which would call on states to consider requiring data centers to pay for necessary grid upgrades; the Senate version of the bill did not pass. According to the Brookings Institution, the newly elected Congress will revisit the topic with a proposal for mandatory rather than voluntary measures. President Trump responded to the criticism by claiming that opponents of data centers want their communities to remain "backward and poor." On November 4, Elon Musk wrote on X that data centers in space now look appealing, and the following day, stocks of companies linked to data centers fell.

The source (The Conversation) notes that evidence that opposition to data centers actually determined the outcome of the elections is still limited – there is no information on what position the defeated candidates held on the topic, and the high success rate of restrictive measures does not indicate the level of opposition to the more than 600 new projects planned across the US.