Voters reject all but one data center ballot measure

Voters across 10 states delivered a broad rebuke to data center development in the 2026 midterms, siding against the facilities on every local ballot measure except one as the technology industry pursues a historic expansion of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The exception was Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected a charter rule amendment requiring additional review before the city could approve industrial developments, including data centers. Elsewhere, voters backed restrictions, according to an analysis by Ballotpedia and additional results CNBC gathered Wednesday.

In total, 41 local measures addressing restrictions on data center construction appeared on Tuesday’s ballots, according to Ballotpedia. The results add another obstacle for an industry already facing investor concerns about spending.

Ohio becomes a focal point

Ohio accounted for 21 of the local measures, according to Ballotpedia, and opposition to data centers also figured prominently in its statewide races.

Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Sen. Jon Husted after portraying the incumbent as "the face of data centers", while Democrat Amy Acton, a physician, beat Republican businessman Vivek Ramaswamy in the governor’s race.

Acton favors a "conditional moratorium" on data centers to ensure developers cover 100% of utility costs and "exclusively build with union labor."

The state is also home to a major planned expansion. OpenAI announced in August that it had secured 8 gigawatts of computing capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Ohio, the world’s largest planned AI data center campus.

SoftBank and SB Energy are developing the campus with the U.S. Department of Energy. According to the project’s website, the first construction phase is scheduled to begin this year, with capacity coming online in stages starting in 2028.

SoftBank is a major OpenAI investor. The two companies announced plans earlier this year to invest $1 billion in SB Energy. Nvidia is also backstopping the Ohio project, whose total cost could exceed $500 billion.

Backlash extends beyond local measures

Communities in California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, Nevada and Wisconsin also voted on data center issues, according to Ballotpedia.

The debate reached beyond those ballot questions. In a CNBC Voter Poll, 56% of voters described data centers as a crucial or major factor in their decisions, with Democrats placing greater importance on the issue than Republicans.

Democrats campaigning to pause or regulate new projects won key races in Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia and Texas. In Texas, which is on track to become the world’s largest data center market by 2030, Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott after accusing him of putting technology industry interests ahead of local communities during the state’s rapid data center buildout.

Those results came despite record Silicon Valley spending to influence the midterms. A CNBC analysis of Federal Election Commission records found that 14 of the 20 largest donor groups supported Republicans almost exclusively. Crypto, AI and online gambling interests contributed more than $377 million.

Elon Musk, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars during the election cycle, largely came up empty.

"Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now", Musk wrote in a post on X.

Calls for AI executives to testify

The election setback followed an October sell-off in chipmakers, neoclouds and other data center-related companies amid concerns about rising interest rates and overspending.

Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta are each spending hundreds of billions of dollars annually on AI infrastructure to meet demand they describe as insatiable. All except Microsoft have turned cash flow negative in the process.

Within hours of polls closing, Democrats began calling for AI executives to testify under oath. Rep. Greg Casar, the Texas Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was among the first to respond.

"The House Democratic majority must make it a top priority to protect Americans' jobs, freedom, and lives from AI billionaires", Casar said in a statement after Democrats were projected to win the House. "AI company CEOs should be called to testify under oath."

Casar accused Republicans of being "bought and paid for by AI billionaires", saying voters had rejected that influence. He warned Democrats to "hold them accountable instead of cashing their checks."

He characterized the data center dispute as the start of a larger political fight.

"The revolt against data centers was one of the top issues of the 2026 election", he said. "And in a few years we will look back on it as just the early tremor of a much bigger AI earthquake upending American politics."

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