Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs was one such proponent – until public pressure pushed her to the other side of the issue. In July, she enacted a three-year pause on any new tax break given to a company for a data centres project.
Arizona is far from the only state to see politicians react to data centre backlash.
Abdul El Sayed, a Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, made new rules and regulations for data centres a clear part of his successful primary campaign for Senate.
In the race for governor of Georgia, a Democrat who is calling for a pause on data centre development is in a dead heat with a Republican who disagrees.
Republican Senator John Husted of Ohio, who is fighting to keep his seat against Democrat Sherrod Brown, has also had to shift his position. Recent polls, external have found that the majority of Ohio voters oppose data centres. He has softened his support, saying that their arrival should be up to local citizens and elected officials.
Meanwhile, Brown has stumped on his opposition to new data centres. He leads Husted in recent polls.
Husted’s trouble in Ohio led the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the major fundraising arm for conservatives in the Senate, to write in a private memo, external that Republican politicians needed to entirely reframe how they spoke to voters on data centres.
“This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle”, the NRSC added.
Texas is perhaps the most clear cut example of how backlash has turned into an undeniable issue for even the most pro-business politician.
The state currently has almost 300 operational data centres, with another 170 planned for development, according to Pew data.
At the end of last year, Republican Governor Greg Abbott had boasted of Texas as “the epicentre of AI development” because of the number of data centres it housed.
Within months he was backtracking, citing concerns of “safety and quality of life”.
It could play a part in the state’s upcoming senate race too.
Democrat James Talarico’s campaign is pushing for an end to “sweetheart tax deals” for Big Tech. He’s now seen as a frontrunner for the historically Republican seat, where he is facing off against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton said in a late September interview that there was still “plenty of open space in Texas that we can put data centres”.
