43 of 44 Data Center Moratoriums Pass as Democrats Seize Congress
Election results signal a shift in AI policy, with new leaders promising stricter oversight and local control over tech infrastructure.
By Fatou Kim ·
Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday night, marking a decisive shift in national power. Along with capturing traditionally red and swing states, the party elected the first Black woman governor in Georgia and the first Native American woman governor in New Mexico. A Maine senator served 30 years before ceding his seat to a Democrat. In these races, candidates consistently ran on platforms focused on holding artificial intelligence companies accountable.
The most immediate impact is visible in local voting measures. Forty-three of 44 local data center moratoriums on the ballot passed. This outcome sends a direct message to AI firms about the difficulty of expanding construction. In Texas, the state with the fastest growing data center buildout, governor-elect Gina Hinojosa said she plans to issue a ban on all data center approvals until the legislature passes laws to protect residents. Similar promises were made in other key states.
Guru Sethupathy, general manager of AI governance at Optro, stated that data centers were clearly on the ballot. NBC News polled voters on Tuesday and found that 76 percent opposed data centers in their communities. Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of the Guardrails Alliance, called the backlash one of the most bipartisan political issues she has seen. Residents cited concerns about noise pollution and rising electricity bills as primary reasons for their opposition.
Kyle Jacobs-Morse, deputy executive director at The Tech Oversight Project, noted that voters identified big tech companies as the cause of higher utility rates. He observed that Democratic campaigns in Texas, Georgia, and Ohio prioritized local issues stemming from data center "spillover costs." François Ajenstat, CEO of Golden Analytics, said he expects more questions about who benefits from and who pays for AI infrastructure.
Industry leaders have reacted with mixed emotions. OpenAI and Anthropic did not provide comments to The Verge. Elon Musk, who spent close to $450 million backing Republican campaigns, deleted his post on X urging voters to vote "red." Privately, CEOs discussed compute capacity constraints, with OpenAI facing particular pressure. Meta’s platforms president, Dina Powell McCormick, said many executives are considering moving data center construction abroad. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, posted that people should always be in control of the future, though he also spent time discussing RAM.
Wes McEnany, who works with the Future of Life Institute, described the results as a total repudiation of the AI field. He said AI touches every aspect of people’s lives, from job applications to social media, and citizens are tired of lacking agency in the conversation. The bipartisan backlash has likely ended efforts by President Trump and congressional Republicans to bar state-level AI restrictions. Thomas considers that idea completely dead, while McEnany said any member who votes to wipe out state AI laws will be looking for a job in the next election.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia was reelected after campaigning for AI safety policy. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said in his victory speech that Silicon Valley leaders warn of human extinction risks while digging bunkers for themselves. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar introduced a bill in September to ban superintelligence. President Trump, who previously called the AI safety crisis a hoax, will now face a Congress where Republican lawmakers must decide whether to negotiate with Democrats on safety measures. Adam Kovacevich, CEO of Chamber of Progress, expects AI safety legislation to continue in blue states.
Katie Barr, CEO of Glen Echo Group, said she would not over-read the results as an overwhelming tech rejection but rather a reckoning on affordability and safety. Analysts at Yorkville Ives & Co. wrote that tech investors should prepare for major hurdles in AI legislation. They noted a potential slight positive in that the slowdown could help avoid a market bubble. The election results suggest that voter skepticism toward rebranding efforts, such as OpenAI calling its facilities "compute campuses," is strong.
