---
title: "Voters Turned on the Data Centers, and the Tech Lobby Says They Meant Trump"
description: "Texas elected a governor who promised a moratorium and 38 of 44 anti-data-center measures passed. Industry voices say the vote was about Trump"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-11-04T20:55:50Z
modified: 2026-11-05T01:37:54Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/voters-turned-on-the-data-centers-and-the-tech-lobby-says-th-43cc3a
language: en
tags: ["ai", "politics", "trump", "economy", "infrastructure", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Voters Turned on the Data Centers, and the Tech Lobby Says They Meant Trump

*Texas elected a governor who promised a moratorium and 38 of 44 anti-data-center measures passed. Industry voices say the vote was about Trump*

By Jan Sokol · November 4, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/voters-turned-on-the-data-centers-and-the-tech-lobby-says-th-43cc3a

## In brief

- Redbud Consulting counted 44 measures in 10 states to restrict data centers; 38 had passed as of Wednesday
- Democrat Gina Hinojosa beat Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas after pledging a moratorium on data center approvals
- Bloomberg says about 13 gigawatts of Texas data center capacity is exposed; some projects may slip 12 to 18 months
- Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich called the results an anti-Trump wave, not an anti-tech mandate
- NBC exit polls: 3 in 4 voters oppose data centers, though cost of living and corruption ranked higher

On November 3, Americans went to vote in the midterms, and in ten states many of them were also asked about buildings: the large server halls where the AI boom is housed. A polling firm called Redbud Consulting counted 44 ballot measures across those states that sought to restrict data centers. By the time [Ashley Belanger wrote for *Ars Technica*](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/11/big-tech-claims-voters-ai-backlash-is-anti-trump-not-anti-tech/) the next day, 38 had passed. Dozens of them were moratoriums or outright bans.

Only one measure passed that let a data center go ahead, and the voters attached conditions even to that. In a North Dakota city, developers who want to build or expand must now pay for independent reviews and hold public hearings.

Thirty-eight out of forty-four. And the one yes came with strings.

Analysts said the new rules will not reach projects already under construction or approved through 2027. They will land on the projects planned for 2028, which is exactly the capacity the industry has been promising its investors.

## Texas

The biggest blow came in Austin. Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated Greg Abbott, the three-term Republican governor, in what [NBC News called a stunning result](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/gina-hinojosa-win-texas-governor-race-greg-abbott-upset-election-rcna603360). Axios described Texas as the epicenter of the boom and said the state had been expected to supply more than 41 percent of the data center capacity added in 2028. Wells Fargo measures it differently: by its count, [27 percent of planned data center gigawatts are in Texas](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/04/ai-stocks-texas-governor-data-centers.html), CNBC reported, as AI data center stocks fell the morning after.

![Stylized industrial buildings with cream roofs and coral windows stand on a dark irregular landform against a teal background, with three rectangular foundations in front.](https://rews.cc/img/cbde8825c31fb65d2aef0e15a77d597b7555b553.webp)

Hinojosa had not hidden her plans. “When I am governor I will issue a moratorium — a ban — on all data center approvals until laws can be passed by the Legislature to protect Texans,” she said in October, [as KWTX reported](https://www.kwtx.com/2026/11/04/gina-hinojosa-won-governors-race-what-happens-texas-data-centers-now/). She has said projects will wait until there are laws “tackling impacts on water, electricity, air, and property rights.” Bloomberg wrote that developers now face the “worst-case scenario,” with roughly “13 gigawatts of data center capacity” exposed.

Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research gave the timetable in a note to clients. Texas projects with “power, permits and steel keep going,” he wrote, but “those with power but no state environmental permits slip 12 to 18 months.” Some may move to Louisiana or Georgia. Some may not get built anywhere. “The question now is how long the pause lasts,” Johnson wrote. Libby Cantrill, head of public policy at PIMCO, expects “a lot more sand in the gears of the AI buildout regardless,” with permits taking longer and developers having to give more away.

## The map beyond Austin

Arizona, Georgia and Ohio were the next three states most eager for data center investment, and Democrats won the governorship in all of them. Axios projected that “nearly two-thirds of 2028 data center capacity” could face delays like those Hinojosa has promised. Bloomberg estimated that half of America’s data centers now face more scrutiny. Developers can expect smaller tax incentives and stricter rules on who pays for grid upgrades and water, and their costs will likely rise at a bad moment. Gartner recently estimated that the AI boom is “nearly $5 trillion short of paying for itself.”

![A dark hourglass on a yellow background holds cream buildings above, with coral circles falling through its neck and collecting below.](https://rews.cc/img/883df95bc8e471e51837903776f37de7ecaa789d.webp)

It did not start on Election Day. Days earlier, rews reported that [the Bay Area was banning the buildings](https://rews.cc/a/the-bay-area-builds-the-ai-boom-and-bans-its-buildings-030e1f) of the boom it had helped create. In September, the head of CoreWeave had said orders were [unaffected by the backlash](https://rews.cc/a/us-companies-build-gigawatt-scale-data-centers-as-ai-drives--2df53f).

## The courtiers’ reading

When the ruled say no, the people around the rulers tend to argue that the ruled meant something else. That is a reflection, but Wednesday offered an example. Adam Kovacevich, a former Google executive who now runs the tech trade group Chamber of Progress, said in a statement that the results offer little evidence of a voter mandate to crack down on AI or data centers. “Democratic gubernatorial candidates who opposed data center bans won at a higher rate than those who supported them,” he said.

> “Let’s not confuse an anti-Trump wave with an anti-tech mandate.”

“Voters wanted change on the economy, not a crackdown on innovation,” he added. The [group’s statement](https://progresschamber.org/news/democrats-won-on-the-economy-not-an-anti-tech-agenda/) also said AI and data centers ranked 19th among voters’ top issues. That figure comes from Chamber of Progress itself.

The NBC News exit polls do show voters ranking the cost of living and government corruption above AI. The same polls show three in four voters opposed to data centers, and more than half saying AI and data centers were “a crucial or major factor” in how they voted for Congress. Alejandra Montoya-Boyer, vice president of The Leadership Conference’s Center for Civil Rights and Technology, cited those numbers. “The 2026 midterms have been the first true AI election in the US,” she said. The vote came, she said, “as the biggest AI companies raced to go public, AI systems broke out of the test ‘sandboxes’ meant to contain them, and biased and discriminatory AI kept making life-altering decisions about us.”

![A small person holds an oval mirror that reflects a giant thumbs-down hand as a thumbs-up against a teal background.](https://rews.cc/img/f9e7dfd9acb5cc210b9747efe0f09c244754134f.webp)

Other analysts told Axios that voters seemed more worried about efforts to block state AI regulation than about data centers. One said that in four swing districts, voters trusted Democrats over Republicans to hold AI executives accountable by 7 to 10 points. “What we just witnessed was an AI earthquake,” said Brad Carson, co-founder of Americans for Responsible Innovation.

## The argument of the race

President Trump’s case against regulating AI rests on the race with China. Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, told the South China Morning Post that “a slowdown in the US could be a win for China.” He does not expect the buildout to stop entirely. But he expects a Democratic Congress to put limits on American computing capacity, which “would keep \[US\] AI token prices high, giving China an opportunity to export cost-effective inference services, supported by abundant electricity supplies.” In the most extreme case, he suggested, companies like Amazon or Google could build their hyperscale data centers outside the United States.

Washington will not move fast. Michael Strobaek of Lombard Odier noted that Trump can still veto whatever Congress sends him, and Time reported that Democrats would need “substantial Republican support” to override him. Some analysts said a Democratic majority could still block Trump’s attempts to weaken Environmental Protection Agency protections to help data centers.

On Wednesday the president posted a series of reactions on Truth Social. He seemed to blame Fox News for giving Democrats airtime, and he argued the results would have been different if his own name had been on the ballot.

He did not mention AI directly.